DEIP Origins
by Maxoscos
Summary: ABANDONED! My fanfiction has transformed into an independent fantasy novel. Visit my DeviantArt channel for any further information and to see the whole progress developing. Thank you for your interest and your support, I will leave these chapters as they are, but consider them non-non-canon. Or abandoned. "DEIP Origins" is officially closed now.
1. Chapter 1 - The name's Tangery

_**Chapter 1 – The name's Tangery**_

"How old are you, boy?"

The Salesman asked while he looked at me. What? Why did he ask me that? Was I too young for him to buy a piece of the most expensive steel from _Solitas_? It was just a piece of steel, one of the rarest metals in _Remnant_ , but seriously, it didn't have anything dangerous on it. No trigger, no blade, heck, not even a sharp edge. Of course, it was way too expensive for the most people around here, but still, I had the money with me already. It was on my credit card.

"I am seventeen years old. Why? Is there a problem?"

I replied. The salesman leaned himself against his market stand and carefully inspected me. He was strong, muscular, and had a full beard which was looking like it covered his whole face. It was market day, which meant that he just built up his stand in front of his actual store. I saw a lot of different stuff on his stand and inside his store.

"That's a young age for someone who tries to buy steel. First, do you even have money, and second, what do you want to do with it?"

I looked at him with the most serious expression I could do.

"Listen, I don't want to casue any trouble, but I really need this kind of steel, I desperately need it for something very important, okay?"

"Really. What's your name?"

Well, at least now I knew that he just wanted to mess with me. He most certainly didn't know who he was talking to. I lifted my hand up so he could see my ring. I wore a black ring with silver outline. The huge T couldn't be overlooked. It stood for my last name.

 _Tangery_. The salesman wasn't naive, but this ring couldn't be out there twice. To make it short, my family, a bunch of criminals, screwed with the wrong people and we got attacked. I came from the continent Sanus, and we lived on the opposite site from the _Kingdom of Vale_. The largest settlement there and the diamond of Sanus.

The attack and my escape were two weeks ago now. I was wanted for crimes I never committed, and I had to be careful. I always wanted to become a _Huntsman_ , not a criminal. The only thing I did was to take a lot of money from my family and the ring and escape. Since that I tried to forget my past. It wasn't always easy to pretend to be a different person, to pretend that you are just a normal guy as anyone else.

But now I stood in front of that salesman and I needed the steel really badly. So, I didn't see any other way to obtain it. I spoke a bit quieter and said the following words.

"I am _Darkin Tangery_ , the son of _Sang Yiriel Tangery_. You should know us, right? And don't jump to conclusions; I am only here to get myself some steel. So please."

The salesman stared at me in horror. I was fucked. He knew exactly who I was. And he knew the things that were told about me and my family. The man shouted for help and ran in to his store, closing the door behind him.

I stood there now, with my arm stretched out and baffled. I formed a fist and lowered my arm. Then I went off. That really did just happen, are you kidding me? My goal was even further away from me than before.

I needed to repair my weapon; it got damaged on my escape. And that was the reason why I chose the steel from the salesman. It had the best quality and was by far the best choice I could find.

"Well, not that way then."

I said to myself. I carefully looked around. I stood in the middle of the street. There were a lot of people around, every one of them trying to buy things from the merchants. And all of that occurred in this terrible harbor. I hated this city since I arrived there, and there wasn't even a good explanation for that, too. Maybe I wasn't used to have so many people around me.

And it could also be that I was the only damn one here who was wearing expensive clothing, so everyone stared at me. A cropped black leather jacket which I wore loose. Silver embellishments decorated the whole jacket, and the right side got modified with a great slice of yellow _dust_ , which allowed me to shoot lightning at my enemies if I wanted to.

I sewed it into the clothing so I could use it in fights. It proved its worthiness already, in a lot of fights. I wore yellow trousers and a dark gray waist coat, covering my bright yellow shirt. My bang yellow scabbard normally hung down from its belt on my left waist.

But my beloved sword got damaged, so there was no point in taking it with me. But I had my knife with me, my secondary weapon. Its little scabbard was strapped on my right leg. I looked around in the street.

My surroundings were not clear for me for a second. Everywhere colors, banners, people who purchased stuff. The warm air coaxed, this entire story started in the middle of the summer, forty one years after the _Great War_.

The sun shined bright on the windows which reflected the light into my face. I turned around and ran directly into a soldier. I got knocked back, but I stiffened and stared at him. There were five of them. White soldiers. _Atlasian_ soldiers, all the way down here from their continent _Solitas_ , or to define that, _Atlas_. They tracked me down to this city. I slowly looked up and into his face, but it was covered by the black visor which was in front of his helmet. He looked down at me. Their emblems told me that they were just normal soldiers, no elite fighters or something like that.

"Hey, aren't you the young Tangery?"

I bent down a little. My left hand laid flat on my left chest, while I held my right hand behind my back. I smiled very provoking and said friendly.

"They don't call me the young Tangery, but okay, if you want to call me like that,

it is okay, too. I actually am Darkin Tangery. It is nice to meet you."

I stood upright again and held both of my hands behind my back. I angled my head to my right and asked.

"Why, is there a problem, or can I help you with something, Atlas Soldiers?"

I always had been a little irrational in some moments, mostly in which I was forced to think fast and precisely of what my next move should be. And they knew who I was so or so, in that case, it was useless to try and pretend like it was a misunderstanding.

"We know who you are. We arrest you in the name of many important families, the court a nd in the name of the royal army."

"Nice try, really."

I pointed a finger at myself.

"But the young Tangery needs to go, and I won't go to a prom, so I don't need a plus one. Or, a plus five in this case."

The soldier grinned at me confidently. He laid his hand on the holster of his gun.

"Pathetic till the end, huh?"

I winked. I didn't want to continue this conversation. It was a pure waste of time. This situation had to end in a fight. I did not have to fight before or to kill. I also wanted to be able to prove my innocence in the future. Murders weren't an option. I closed my eyes.

"My father always said that I can take care of myself,

so I don't need people watching over me."

With a strong jump, I escaped from the soldiers. I landed on one of the banners which were hanging over the street. The soldiers were surprised. I bowed again and said loudly.

"I wish you all a good day."

The people and soldiers stood under me. Some wanted to take photos with their scrolls. The soldiers aimed their weapons at me and shot. I ran over the metal pole of the banner and escaped the soldiers. I jumped and landed on a flat roof. I unrolled myself and looked around. A brick chimney had attracted my attention.

I climbed up the chimney and crouched as soon as I was on top of it. I saw my hideout from up there. It wasn't possible to rent a hotel room, I was still wanted by a lot of people, and there was a lot of money set as a bounty on my head. And my name was known well at the moment; therefore, I had to be as careful as I was able to.

My hideout stood only a few hundred meters away. I could have reached it without having the need to use the streets. I jumped down onto the roof and jogged into the direction of my destination, until I heard a voice behind me.

"Stop, Tangery. You are arrested."

I turned around and stared in the face of the soldier behind me. He also carried a helmet and his visor was folded down. He pulled a sword. It was one of those anti riot swords. It wasn't Sharp. He pointed a finger at me.

"I wanted to kill a Tangery for a long time now. Too bad I wasn't present at the raid."

I lowered my head and fixed my look at his weapon.

"Let me clarify this. You want to threaten me with your petite plastic sword?"

I leaned back. I sank down a little and held my left hand in front of me. My right hand walked down my right leg to my secondary weapon on my right thigh. It was a long knife. Its blade appeared flat black and had been well sharpened.

The grip was wrapped up in yellow noble materials. Close to the end of the blade was a golden ornament. I pulled it slowly out of the scabbard. The metallic scratch sounded.

"My fighting style was taught me by my father, and I haven't been bad in my practicing.

I hope you have heard of his abilities."

"We will see, very soon."

The soldier said. He stormed at me. He was strong, big and heavy. His walk generated vibrations on the roof. I felt how I stepped back and waited for the right moment. I thought about a way to perfectly hit him.

I was quick and agile. Small. Compared to him I was weak, but I got something that he didn't have. I had a _Semblance_.

The soldier rushed towards me and lifted his sword with all his strength. He wanted to strike it at me, but I ducked and unrolled myself. Its blade hit in the ground and caused the one area of the roof to rip. He turned his in my direction. I got up and made a somersault in his direction. I turned my body to the right and stretched out my right arm.

The blade of my knife struck the helmet and caused it to nearly rip apart. The soldier tripped backwards. I landed where he stood before. He laid his hand on his helmet and stared at me. He hit after me, but a skillful back flip brought me out of his reach. I landed and pushed off.

"You are a coward. Fight me like a man."

The soldier shouted at me. He had definitely no fun anymore.

"Then we have something in common. I still need to consider what I do the rest of the day."

I ran backwards. After few steps I stopped and felt another chimney behind me. I was used in my abilities. It was time to use my Semblance. I went into attack position. I positioned myself at the chimney, with one foot being based at the chimney. I held my knife in front of my face. My left hand formed waves in the direction of the soldier. A black veil of shade and darkness pulled a track of shades across the roof.

I ran. The shade wrapped around me. I remembered where the soldier stood. He could not see me. I jumped. It was important to remember where he stood. I turned forwards and gave him a strong kick against his breast armor. He was surprised and stumbled back. He fell over the edge of the roof.

Following the noises, I was sure that he fell into a fruit stand. I heard clattering and breaking wood. I turned around and began to run to my hideout. I jumped over the narrow streets, about obstacles on the roofs, just as these would be tears in the ground. Soon I reached my hideout. To hide my primary entrance, I had covered a big window with some curtains. I climbed in the attic and closed the window.

My hideout was an abandoned bookshop. The equipment had come down, but the large part of the books was still there. I walked around in the attic. I walked past a bed which was placed there. Some cardboard moving boxes stood in between. A full wardrobe came next. The previous inhabitants of the house had it quite in a great hurry. I ran past a pile of tins and drinks. Though I was no Tangery anymore, but by the monetary heap on which my family sat, I did not need to beg. I reached for a bottle of lemonade and sat down before my impromptu workbench. I have simply tipped over a cupboard and got myself some tools.

On the cupboard laid _Destiny's_ _Sun_. It was my weapon of choice. A sword, equipped with some very useful functions. It was a dust-Grey bladed sword with decorations. The grip was wrapped in yellow wool.

A special sign of the sword was the mechanism of the gun. It sat between the blade and grip. The magazine was located inside the hilt of the sword. The magazine could be simply pulled out. The whole mechanism was protected by a silver-gray guard. And this was the trouble maker.

The guard got damaged.

I reflected a bullet when I escaped from the raid, however, the bullet got stuck in the guard. Since then I did not use my weapon anymore, because I feared that it could become worse. And this was the reason why I needed the steel from the salesman.

I had to repair my sword. And, perhaps, I would also exchange a part of the blade; I would simply exchange it with that indestructible steel. I opened the bottle of lemonade and took a swallow. I set down the bottle and supported myself on the workbench.

I had to get that steel. Maybe the salesman had a secret which I could use to my advantage. But where could I get such information? I needed to find a place which was full of information and stories. A place that was visited by the people who could know those things. I looked out of the window.

The light which shined through the glass spread warmth in the attic. A place where rumors walked around faster than a waitress. This harbor just had to have a good spot for stories, I mean, it was a place where a lot of people arrived and went off. I knew where I had to look. A bar.

I wandered through the streets. It was dark. The moon threw its soft light at the streets and the windows. I thought that it would be more likely to find the right people to talk to at night time, rather than on the middle of the day.

I needed gangsters, bad people. The people everybody else feared. And I knew how to find the right one, and I also knew how to talk to such people. I lowered my head and pressed the door to the bar open. First rule, I must not look at a man directly, they could get upset by that alone. Do not stare at somebody directly. No grimaces. I simply had to mind my own business. I looked around carefully. Everywhere were dangerous people.

I saw some people which may have fitted into my pattern. I saw somebody who had his hood deep in his face. Welder's glasses covered his eyes. He talked with a man who sat in front of him. I saw how he pulled his jacket to the side and pointed at a lot of weapons.

No. This man was a killer, no candidate for me. My stare wandered to a pool table. Some people played there, listening to the pretty sounds of hard guitar riffs and deep drums. I liked that kind of music, too. A woman danced in between those guys, probably for the man who sat on a chair and drank beer.

The only information I could get from them would be their names, and even that would have led to a brawl. At least two dozen of people sat everywhere in that bar. Everybody played cards, talked or waited for applications. My look wandered to the bar. A barkeeper with a noble mustache wiped the dark brown wooden bar with a piece of cloth. A little further on the left sat a man who looked quite drunk. It seemed almost thus as if he fell of the chair at any second. Nevertheless, one guest attracted my attention. He did not fit in at all. I was too pensive for a few seconds and stared exactly in the direction of the bar.

The door shut with a loud bang. All people in that bar looked to me. Everybody stared at the fine young man, in good clothes and a sword on the hip. I had taken it with me actually, but only for the deterrence. The bang-yellow scabbard from my sword hung straight across my back. I carried the sword almost vertically with the grip pointing upwards. I had built the device of the fixture so that it allowed me to carry it in different positions.

I nodded once and went to the counter. The people in the bar devoted themselves again to their activities. I arrived at the counter and said.

"One glass of water, please."

The barkeeper looked at me and asked forcing.

"Ain't you old enough to drink some real stuff?"

I took out my metal case with cigarettes and replied simply.

"Yeah, but I also don't want to be drunk at the morning already."

The barkeeper smiled greedy and prepared a glass of water for me. I tapped against my steel cigarette box and took out a cigarette, which I then placed in the corner of my mouth.

"Don't you know that smoking kills, boy?"

I stared at the entrance of the bar.

"It surely is better than getting attacked by a _Grimm_ , right?"

The barkeeper nodded and put the glass of water on the counter. A little bit of water got spilled onto the dark brown wood. A creature of Grimm. Surely there existed nothing more frightening than a monster like that.

"A quite interesting point. I need to ask you something. If you had to pick one word to describe yourself, which one would you pick?"

The man next to me asked.

He wore glasses and had dark brown hair with some gray highlights. He was wearing a black suit. A gray jacket and black trousers.

His eyes were pale blue. He stared at his cup of tea.

I lit the cigarette and breathed in. Then I pressed a small button on my steel box. A small and very sharp blade shot out of the box. For emergencies. I smiled.

"Unpredictable. That is the best description for me."

"Interesting. An efficient word, yet without any real meaning, no real message which is clear to the man spoken to. However, it is only a seem to a person which is deceptive. As long as the described person acts to accomplish the descriptions resemble. And there are enough possibilities which are suited for exactly that."

He took another sip of his tea, then he stared at me through his glasses. They reflected the light in the bar. I sat down and leaned my body against the counter.

"And what did you want to accomplish with that question? You know what I think of myself, why is that so important to you?"

"What if I told you about my plans? I bet you don't know who I am. Why would you believe me, and why would you even trust me?"

"Well, I have to disappoint you, sir; I don't have the slightest clue who you are. Who are you anyways?"

The man smiled eerily.

"It doesn't matter who I am, and it definitely doesn't change anything for now. Let us say I am a man who is interested in you."

"Interested in me?"

I repeated wondering. My cigarette wandered around in my mouth. Again, I looked around carefully. All the people were still minding their own business. I winked and stared at the man.

"Why the heck would you have interest in me? You don't even know me.

Or are you from the military?"

"I wouldn't call me a man from the military, you see, I have a great knowledge of people and families alike. And only one look at you tells me that you originate from the Tangery family. Probably Darkin Tangery. I must say, it is an honor to meet you in person."

I stared at him. There was no way he could have known for sure. But I remembered the reason in the same second in which he revealed it.

"Your clothing, Darkin. Am I allowed to call you like that?"

"No, there is no need for that. Call me the way you want. I don't like my last name anyways."

"Of course. Well, Darkin."

He moved closer to the counter and folded his hands. He looked at me resolutely.

"Let us talk. I know exactly what you have planned, and you need help."

"What do you conceal from me? Who are you?"

"The army is nothing compared to me and the faction I work for. It is not from meaning, too, at least for now. Listen closely. The trader is corrupt, and guess how he got that steel. He got it on unlawful ways. Of course, that does not justify your plans, but what is really legal in this world? Nothing. Be careful however."

"Believe me. I am careful enough. I have not been arrested yet."

"That seems legit. Though, I wouldn't recommend being loud. The soldiers and city guards are very present there. Especially at night time."

He took a final sip of his cup of tea. Then he stood up.

"But I don't think that it will be such a hard thing to pull off for you, you are very clever. If you want to talk to me again sometime, you will find me here."

He took his walking cane and walked past me. I turned around.

"Wait. I still don't know your name. How should I call you?"

" _Greystep_."

The mysterious man responded. He didn't turn around; instead he walked straight for the door.

"Mister Greystep. That is enough."

Then he opened the door and went out. I looked after him. Then I turned around to the bar. This man was quite interesting. If only I knew who he really was. But as he said, I would figure it out soon enough.

For now, I had to repair my sword. I drank the remaining water, then I put it the empty glass on the counter. I stood up and laid down some coins for the barkeeper. The barkeeper took the money and counted it. I walked towards the entrance.

"Wait, young man. You paid too much."

"Change is for you; keep it for the good service. Later."

I opened the door and went out. It was nearly as warm outside as it was in the bar, even though the streets were dark. I looked around in the alleyway. I found no trace of Greystep. He simply vanished. The street was completely empty, except for some lonely people who sat around and were drunk.

Either that or they were on their way to their homes or destinations.

I decided to walk home and prepare for a homicide. I had to get the steel. So there was only one way for me.

Darkness everywhere. It was pierced by the light of street lamps or houses sometimes. Nearly everyone in the town was asleep. It was exactly midnight. I sat between a few trees and waited for some guards to pass by. I figured that it would be best if I waited for the next guards to pass by, to gain more time. And really, two city guards walked around. They had a conversation going on as they passed me.

"Of course. They deliver nothing but discord to us all, and we cannot use that here at all. Imagine how many Grimm attacks could get us."

The other guard shook his head.

"The soldiers act thus as if they were the best ones around here. Have you seen them how they walk around? _You see us, pals? We are player, look at us_."

"Don't talk that loud. None of them shall hear that. They are only after the Tangery anyway. We must keep the order around here. This does not concern us at all."

"However, is it not dangerous, to have the son of Sang Tangery here? What does he want here?"

"I have no idea. Maybe he is only on travel."

The guards left the street. I waited for a few seconds, then I went out of my cover. I looked around but saw nobody around. Perfect. I snuck to the store and took a look inside through the windows. Darkness.

The steel was nowhere to be found. I took my credit card out and opened the door with it. Actually, I didn't expect the door to open that easily.

I silently walked inside the store and closed the door.

"Huh. There is a lot more stuff in here than I expected. Now where is that steel?"

I said to myself. There were swords, decorations, kitchen accessories, and a lot of different stuff. Antiques, weapons, maps, books, furniture and tools. I stared at the shelves. Everywhere were figures made out of metal or wood. Some medals laid around in the cupboard. Forty one years ago was the last day of the Great War.

There was no bigger conflict in the history of mankind. But a special piece in the whole store got my attention. It was a shield. It hung on the wall. The symbol on it seemed to me quite famously. I stared at my shoulder.

It was the same symbol. The symbol of my family. And because the salesman probably collected antiques from all around the world, then this could mean only one thing. It had to be either a shield belonging to one of our soldiers, or it came directly out of my family. I stepped closer. The shield was black; the borders were outlined with gold. The families' symbol was silver. I stared at it and shook my head.

It was probably a shield of my family, but I did not know from whom. At the moment where I wanted to withdraw my stare and to continue my search; it got bright in the store.

I turned around and saw the trader. I laid my hand on my sword. The trader held a gun in his hand.

"What are you doing here? The store is closed. Above all, for you."

"Why? Am I not welcome because of my name?"

"Certainly. I never want to make a deal with a Tangery again."

He pointed at the shield. I had a suspicion what he meant with that.

"I spent my whole life time with serving the Tangery family, buying and selling shit, for some obvious reason. I crossed the borders with important trophies and artifacts, only for your family. But since the recent events... I see that you think you're the next in line for the families' inheritance. You know, the ring. Isn't your sister the rightful inheritance?"

I looked at my hand. It sat on the swords grip. The ring. I stared right into his eyes. The shop owner still aimed his pistol at me.

"Yes. She would have been, but the raid on our family got me to the conclusion that it wouldn't be necessary anymore. There is no Tangery anymore, I bet."

"Oh, trust me. There are more survivors than you think."

I looked around in the small shop. The decorations. The symbols and artifacts everywhere around me. I was curious.

"What is this place? It ain't just an ordinary shop, is it?"

"You are damn right, boy. It was a small spy like access point once, prepared and managed for the undercover soldiers and spies, all of them belonging to your family. I was one of them. I kept this place looking like a shop for all sorts of goodies,

but everything was just a cover up. Sadly though."

The man lifted his gun up. He aimed the pistol at my head now.

"You are not going to tell anybody of this, and you won't get away from here. I bet you bring a lot of money with you, according to all of those soldiers. And even if you defend yourself, your head will probably bring me a lot of honoring and stuff. And it would be a great opportunity to point a middle finger at your family. What is it going to be, kid?"

I pulled my unfinished sword out of its scabbard. Just an inch. I held the sword a bit more downwards and crouched a little. Then I said.

"None of these options. Unfortunately for you, I always have a plan C. Every time, everywhere I go. But, since this situation hasn't escalated yet,

why did you abandon your loyalty to my family?"

"Why? That's because I always hated you all. I was forced to do this stupid job over and over again. And sometimes a person changes. I have decided that this is what I want to do. To finally be free."

I tried everything I could to get out of this mess.

"I have nothing against your opinion, and I don't resemble my family either. Especially not the things they did. So why don't you just let me leave,

and I swear we will never meet again."

"I don't want to. I will spend your bounty with pleasure."

"Then I am sorry."

Then the fight started. The man pulled the trigger and the bullet made its way towards me. I was prepared though. Within one smooth move I pulled out my sword and cut through the air in front of me. The bullet struck the blade of my sword and was cut in half. One half of the bullet struck into the wall, the other one went into the shield. The man was obviously surprised by that, and that gave me an advantage for my next move. I made a three sixty on my left foot, the other leg angled and held up.

I wielded my sword and held it in front of me. I did a little movement with my hand and the sword was in my primary position. The tip of the blade was pointed in the direction of the man. I prepared myself for the next step. I had to use my Semblance, without the man noticing it.

He continued talking.

"I see. You can fight. But every second you waste, the more people will be attracted by the noise we make. Give up now. It doesn't make sense to fight."

I grinned. I let my fingers snap. A black shadowy line of dust and smoke appeared between us. Then I jumped in the air, wielded my sword and rushed down at the man. He had lost me because of my semblance.

I struck down at the shop owner. He saw me in the last second and made a swift move to the side. My sword cut the table behind him in half. The loud crashing was surely heard by someone somewhere in town.

I unrolled myself and turned around. The man turned to me and held his weapon at me again. I ducked, and the next shot missed me again. It destroyed one of the big windows of the shop. Again I tried to injure him. And it nearly worked.

I held my sword in a straight line and aimed it at the man. I thrust it and got him. I cut him at his hip but had used way too much energy on that leap. The man used his opportunity and punched me. My Aura prevented me to get hurt badly, but I still stumbled into a shelf and fell down.

My sword slid over the ground and kept lying next to a showcase full of daggers and short swords. The shop owner put his hand around my neck and pushed me against the wall. I couldn't get any breath.

I struggled and tried to get out of his grip. He laughed as he saw me struggling like that. I hastily looked around and tried to find a way to free myself. My vision slowly blurred. But I saw something. I punched him in his face. I just noticed that he had a scar going across his left eye. It obviously hurt him a lot, because he let go of me. I fell to the ground again, but I got breath again.

The man stumbled backwards and held his free hand over the scar.

"Son of a... My eye."

He shouted.

"You won't just give up, fine. We will do it the hard way."

I breathed heavily. I stood up but wobbled. The shop owner aimed his pistol at me again. I didn't have my weapons. My knife slipped out, too. The only thing I had now was my semblance, but I felt too exhausted from the choking to use it again right now.

I leaned my body against the wall behind me and stared at the gun. I suddenly felt something behind me. It was the shield. It hung behind me. I instantly got an idea. I grabbed it with both my hands. The man didn't notice it. He was way too fixed on killing me. I tried to concentrate again.

"You really want to liven this place up, huh?"

I said, still a bit stammering. I tried to calm down, but my adrenaline was way too high for that to work.

"You just destroyed the whole shop. We both did, see it the way you like.

But I am getting tired of this shit."

"You and me both, kid. Prepare to die. Say goodbye."

He answered smiling, still heavily breathing. I giggled. The man became a bit impatient.

"You're still not shitting bricks. That is interesting indeed.

Again, it reminds me how much I hate you Tangerys."

I made the first move. I didn't let go of the shield. Instead I turned around as fast as I could. I used the wall behind me to push myself off with speed, still holding on to the shield. I let go of it in the middle of my move.

The shield cut through the air with immense speed. It hit the man's gun out of his hand and crashed into the shop counter. The shield was then stopped by the showcase behind the counter. I heard a loud noise; something very massive and heavy fell on the ground. The steel bar.

I started to run towards the man. He looked towards me. He prepared to take a swing at me. He thought I would attack with a jump again, but I decided to slide over the ground towards him and give him a blow to the knee. It worked. He kneeled and cried out.

It surely was a lot of pain. I stood up and stared at the cash register which got knocked down by the shield. The man stared at me, he was in rage.

"You dumb little boy!"

"You're welcome."

I said unemotionally. I walked around the counter to find what I needed. The steel. I picked it up and stuffed it into the pocket inside of my jacket. Then I walked towards my weapons to collect them. I walked pass the man without looking at him. I let some money fall on the ground in front of him. He stared at it and then giggled.

"Really? Now you mock me for losing a battle?"

"Nope. I am paying for the steel. The destruction of your shop is your fault. Next time you should listen to your customer. This could have been avoided, you know."

I said and bent down. I took my sword and my knife and put them back into their scabbards. I took a last look at the shop owner. He was doubling over in pain. The former spy and cooperator for my family. I turned around and walked out of the store. It was time to go; otherwise this place would be swarming with soldiers.

I opened the door and walked out, then I ran towards my hideout. I wanted to avoid any encounters with soldiers or the police. The darkness was my cover. I ran past the soldiers and the police who were on their way to the shop. I smiled. I got it. I held the steel in my hand. I finally got what I needed.

"Huh!"

I breathed out and thrust my sword into a shelf. The unused furniture worked as a good target. I kept my pose for a second while I held the sword upside down in the direction of the wall. My eyes stared directly over the sharp and thin blade.

A few holes in the roof let the sunlight pass through, the stripes of sunlight were filled with little particles of dust. I moved towards my starting position. It was a piece of carpet which laid on the floor. I used it to mark a point, from where I would start attacking the furniture. My look wandered over to the rope which was hanging from the ceiling.

I concentrated, jumped at it and spun. I hit the rope with the blade and it fell to the ground. Then I wielded the sword around and swung it again. The hat stand which I had placed there was cut into two pieces. I pulled the sword back to me and held it up, next to my head. I did it. I repaired my sword. It took me a long time, though.

I went asleep when I arrived at my hideout last night. I needed rest if I wanted to visit Greystep again. I instantly went to work and repaired my beloved sword after I woke up. I called it Destiny's Sun by the way. It was a part of me, it was brave, loyal and I really loved it. It was the most important thing I possessed.

Of course, it was just a sword, a weapon like every other, but it was something very special to me.

I built it by myself. Well, with the help of my father though. Back then, when things were better between us. Nowadays? I didn't even want to see him.

"Well, Destiny?"

I asked my sword.

"How do you feel, now that you are healed again? I bet you like it. If only you could talk."

I smiled. I slid the sword into its scabbard again. Finally, it was ready to fight for me again. I looked around. The furniture which was cut in half laid around all over the floor. My next task was to get a clue what I could do with my spare time on that day. Maybe I would give the inn another try. Maybe there was this mister Greystep again. It was interesting to talk to him. Well, what could possibly go wrong? I went to the table and picked up my jacket and my belt. I had all kinds of different things on it.

Three little pouches. A small chain was strapped around the belt. The pouches were filled with all kinds of stuff. A few useful things to pick locks. A map of Mistral, especially for the coast area. A lighter. Next to the pouches was a little ammunition bag. It wasn't much bigger than the two three pouches.

I kept my ammunition and the dust for my weapon in there. My sword had the ability to switch between a sword and a gun. All I had to do was to bend the grip of my sword with a little bit of strength. It would trigger a mechanism which would pull the long blade inside the guard and extend the pistol and the barrel on top of the sword. And it would also extend the magazine of the gun.

I used normal bullets, but I could let the bullets be soaked with dust, using a mechanism including a small tank of liquid dust above the barrel. Next to the ammunition bag were the pouches for my spare magazines.

I carried two of them at the moment. To be concise, I was prepared for every situation which could occur.

I put on the belt and walked towards the door. I put on my jacket and opened the window. I climbed out and closed it again. I walked across the roof. I was on my way towards the bar again, but I needed to see something. I made a little turn and went to the location of the shop, and the shootout last night. I carefully looked at the street below me. There were a lot of barriers all over the place. A lot of people looked at the scenery.

Many people, which didn't understand why something like that would happen in their neighborhood. A few officers stood around and tried to get a clue what happened there. I shook my head and continued traveling to the bar. I was presented a little surprise when I arrived there. It wasn't filled with bandits.

It was completely empty to be honest. Not one guy was there. Except for the barkeeper. Again, he stood behind the counter, and again he was cleaning it. I let the door close itself and walked through the bar.

I looked around, without moving my head. The chairs, the tables, the pool table. Everything was empty. It was dark, too. Some of the lights on the ceiling weren't running. I arrived at the counter and asked.

"Hey there. What happened here? Where are all the people?"

"Nothing happened. It is the middle of the day. They are all minding their own business

right now. A glass of water?"

"Would be nice."

"Coming right up."

I sat down. The barkeeper filled the glass of water and put it on the counter. This time not spilling any of it. I heard how the door was opened slowly. The one who opened it was obviously careful, for some reason.

I didn't like this at all. I slowly let my hand wandering towards my swords hilt. I felt the pointy pommel. I grabbed the grip and stood up. I hastily turned around and bent the grip of my sword. The transformation began, and my sword shape shifted into a gun in less than two seconds. I aimed at the person which came into the bar. It was dark, and the man walked in the shadows. I didn't recognize him at first, but then he said.

"Hello Darkin Tangery. Don't be afraid, it's me."

I quickly loosened the stiffness in my arm and held the gun down. I said.

"It is good to see you, sir. I was afraid that this would be a trap."

"You can trust me." He answered casually.

I bent the grip again, and the sword transformed into its previous formation again. I put my sword into its scabbard again.

"After all, you just pulled off your little homicide. A pretty interesting, yet worrying outcome. What did happen there?"

He walked towards me.

I took out my box again and lit up a cigarette.

"Sounds you already saw it."

"Of course. The whole city talks about that incident. Shots fired and everything."

I took a breath and stared at the wall. I leaned myself against the counter.

"He apparently wanted me to tear up the whole store back there. I couldn't influence him to just sell me the damn steel. And then he attacked. Or it was me, I don't know anymore.

It went off quickly."

"I see."

Greystep said peacefully. He arrived at the counter and nodded to the barkeeper. He served him a cup of tea. I took another breath of my cigarette, but this time I kept the cigarette between my lips. The smoke was like a cover in front of my face.

"You had no choice; I knew it all the time, somehow. However, the man who was running the store vanished. He isn't here anymore."

"Really?"

I asked surprised.

"Where did he go to?"

"Who knows?"

Greystep said simply. He took a sip of his tea.

"There are many places he could have gone too.

But to find him in the next weeks… impossible."

We both were silent for a short time. Then I broke the silence with a question which would change everything for me.

"And what now?"

I asked slowly. Greystep looked at me with an asking expression, but I couldn't shake the feeling that he was playing with me.

"What do you have in mind?"

"You see, the first we met, you said that it wouldn't be necessary to really know you for the moment. I think that it is time that you reveal who you really are."

He smiled. He pointed at the wall which I was facing.

"Do you know in which direction you are looking right now?"

"Nah. Tell me."

"Have you ever heard of a place called

 _Haven Academy_?"

"Haven?"

I repeated. I thought about that for a second.

"Isn't that one of those schools which are supposed to train huntsmen and huntresses?"

"Ten points for you, Darkin. I am a teacher over there. I am on a little vacation right now, to recruit people like you. You get the bigger picture?"

"You want me to join the school, don't you?"

Greystep nodded.

"You are smart. I can get you a place over there. We still need young people, and I see that you are very talented. You have the ability to control your movement, your Semblance, probably your Aura, too. And I heard that you are a talented fighter. All these things are perfect requirements for a Huntsman. Now, are you interested?"

"Sure am. I would love to, but there is one little problem. I cannot join the school. I am being wanted by some soldiers and the police. And a few authorities want to see me dead. Or at least in prison."

"Don't worry about that, Darkin. I can make agreements, I can settle all that. All I need from you is your answer. Do you want to join Haven academy? Do you want to become a _Huntsman_? Are you willing to protect the people of Remnant from the creatures of Grimm?"

This was a great offer. I would lose my bounty, I could finally move on in my life. And I could do something good for humanity. I could defeat the monsters of Grimm which were a pretty damn problem. And most importantly: I finally could leave my past behind. I turned around to Greystep and asked.

"Where do I need to sign?"

"I like you."

Greystep said. He gave the barkeeper money and addressed me.

"This one is on me. Come with me. I probably have to give you the details."

"Of course. And you must answer me a question then."

"I will do that."

He answered. We stepped out of the bar and walked through the street. It wasn't crowded.

"Tell me, Greystep. You want to help me, you can bring me in,

and you can take the bounty off my head. What do you want from me then?"

"What? A man must do what he can do protect humanity. If that means that I shall help you, then I'm in. you see, there is no need to pay me back yet. Now, listen carefully. You can get your belongings, everything you need, and I will meet you at your hideout.

It's the abandoned book store, right?"

"What? How did you know that?"

"I have my sources. And there aren't many good places to vanish in this city. I will see you then. Until then, Darkin Tangery."

"Yeah. Later. And thank you."

He went off. He held his walking stick in his hand. He didn't need it to walk.

"Huh. That is the way Huntsmen cover up their weapons. Interesting."

I wondered loudly. I shook my head and went back to my hideout. It was time to get my stuff.


	2. Chapter 2 - Haven Academy

_**Chapter 2 – Haven Academy**_

"What could I possibly need?"

I said to myself. I stared at the shelves which I didn't destroy while practicing. A lot of clothing and accessories were in them. Hats. Shoes. Jackets, trousers, shirts, everything. I picked out some things which looked similar to my primary clothing style. I took my bag which I brought with me and stuffed the things I found inside it.

I walked down the stairs to the book store. There was one book which seemed to be interesting. It was a book about weapons, techniques and specifications. I walked around a little bit longer and found a few books about Grimm and Huntsmen. I took them, too. If I wanted to become a Huntsman, I had to know enough about them.

After I was finished with packing my things, I took the bag and opened the front door of my hideout. I carefully looked around.

I saw nothing on the whole street but a black car. The doors opened, and two men dressed in black got out of the car along with Greystep. He waved at me. I closed the door and walked towards the car.

"It is good to see that you decided to come anyways."

Said Greystep.

"Get in the car; I will bring you to Haven Academy safely."

"Thank you."

I got into the car and closed the door. The car began to drive out of the city, in the direction of Haven Academy. Greystep looked at me.

"Well. You got questions, I bet?"

"Sure. First. How long will the trip be, Greystep?"

"I guess it should be one hour to Haven from here. And one more thing, now it's Doctor Greystep to you. I am one of your teachers from now on."

"Alright, I understand. Plenty of time I guess. What am I going to do when we arrived?"

"Let's see. Today is the arrival schedule. There are many new students coming to the school. They either studied or learned in a fight school. You are originally coming from Sanus, right? Then there shouldn't be anyone who recognizes you at first. I'd still be careful if I were you, because your family isn't that admired. No offense."

"None taken. I see it that way, too."

"Great. _Professor Lionheart_ is the Headmaster of the academy. He is very polite, he will personally welcome everybody in the academy, of course. You will like him. I talked to him and convinced him that you are willing to practice and study in his academy."

"What does the training look like? "

I asked. Greystep thought about that for a second.

"How shall I describe it? You will take classes and lessons. Some of them will be about history, some about fighting, and some about knowledge which is important for a Huntsman. The fighting classes will be what you would expect, because it isn't just enough to know how to defeat Grimm. You also need to have experience and practice."

"Well, it shouldn't be that difficult for me. I was taught in fighting by my father. I am sure you heard something about his skills, right?"

"Oh, of course. Your father is rather talented in fighting. Some myths exist about him,

for example decapitating a Grimm nevermore with his dagger."

I shook my head.

"Those aren't just myths, Doctor. That really happened. We were attacked by that thing, and he killed it on his own. And I will not stop learning until I got better."

"That is exactly the spirit you need."

Greystep smiled and relaxed in his seat.

"First, there is the enrollment. It will be followed by a sleepover in the great hall, to give the new students a chance to befriend themselves with each other. Tomorrow you will take part in a quest, which will test you abilities and to make it easier to integrate everyone into a fitting team of four. But this will be the headmaster's duty to tell you all."

"Wait. Make teams? What do you mean?"

Greystep noticed that I didn't know anything about the academies of Huntsmen.

"You see, every student will be in a four-man strong team. It will be decided by the way they work together on the quest.

These teams will be working together until they have their graduation."

I looked back. We passed the cities walls. Now we were on our way towards the academy. Soon we were driving through forests. We passed a few little cities which were fortified pretty heavily to protect its citizens from Grimm. Creatures of the night, attracted by fear, hatred and discord. Sometimes I wondered why my family's mansion wasn't completely wiped out then.

"Welcome to Haven Academy."

Greystep said. He pointed at the enormous mountains. The _City of Mistral_. It was the biggest settlement on the continent _Anima_. We had arrived. Only the plain sight of the massive city gave me a quick impression of the wealth of this place. It was a beautiful city, it seemed harmonizing and peaceful. I looked at Greystep.

"Now, how are we going to get up there?"

"With a little airlift. Look over there."

He pointed at an airship which was flying towards us. It landed not far away from us and picked us up. It was a wooden ship with a balloon on top which provided the ability to fly. It had an open space in the middle. A city guard stood in it, as well as another teacher from Haven. He was a relatively young man. His hair was a light black with a highlight of blue. He was wearing a long, black coat and black trousers. And I noticed a white band around his left arm. A thick beard underlined his blue eyes. He looked at Greystep, and then at me.

"Is that the student you told me about, _Isodor_?"

"Yes, this is Darkin Tangery."

"Aha. Hello then, Darkin. It is a pleasure to meet you. I am _Doctor Ikuchi Mashiro_.

I am going to teach you in weapons class."

"Thank you, Doctor Mashiro. It is a privilege to be here."

"It is nice to hear that. Well, we better hurry up. The enrollment will begin soon.

Are you excited?"

He asked while he gave the pilot a thumb up. The aircraft began to float towards the city.

"Of course, Doctor. I am thankful for this opportunity."

I looked at the city from far away. It was a very exciting feeling. I saw many people who were on their ways to their family, to a meeting, to the market or their occupation. The streets were colorful; people and animals of all kinds were present. It was a big, white city. The nature was very present there. I have never seen such a beauty. It was very fascinating to see a city, built in the wilderness which was nearly untouched by the humans. The wind blew through my hair. Greystep smiled.

"I see that you are fascinated, right?"

"You won't believe me, Doctor. I haven't seen such a beautiful city in my life."

Doctor Mashiro stepped next to me and looked down, too. He put his hands behind his back.

"It sure is. I was stunned, too. The first time I came here. I actually come from _Vacuo_ ,

but I heard that Haven needed more teachers for fight classes, so I signed up."

"I understand, Doctor. Where is the school, though? I only see normal houses."

Greystep nodded into the direction of the mountain.

"The school is located on these mountains. You could easily mistake it as an extension to the city."

The ship needed a little time to fly towards the two mountains. But the sight was great. The school sat above the overall city like a huge crown. It was almost completely built out of white concrete and dark wood. The blue rooftops were distinctive. A few staircases led to a landing platform next to the cliff.

The whole academy looked like a painting, like magnificently drawn art. The City of Mistral. There was some sort of gap between the two mountains, and above which sat the academy and the CCT tower. _The Cross Continental Transmit_ station, an invention that allowed all people of the whole world to communicate with each other. A huge complex.

I looked at the aircraft which landed on the platforms. They were modernized, not like the aircraft which we used, but it had a nice, old feeling to it. These aircraft landed on the huge landing platform.

A lot of students walked out of them and made their way towards Haven Academy. Our ship landed directly next to the entrance. All the students walked towards us. I jumped off the aircraft and looked around. The academy looked way bigger and even more beautiful, now that we were on the ground. I turned around to the teachers.

"Okay, now we're here, what comes next?"

"Now it's time for you to go with the students. We will await you all in the main hall."

Said Greystep. He turned around and walked towards the entrance with Doctor Mashiro. I turned around to the students. They walked past me without noticing me. I was glad. From now on, I would be a normal boy like everyone else. I walked with the flow. I held on to my bag. One of the straps covered my emblem on my right breast, the silver T with the yellow circle in the background. I tried to be as casually as I could, to be just like the others, but one student kept up and walked next to me.

"New here, too?"

I looked at her surprised.

"Oh, sorry, I didn't see you. Yes, I literally just joined."

"My name is _Eda_ _Eisengrau_. Nice to meet you."

I was surprised by her immediacy. I nodded kindly and answered.

"Cool. I am Darkin…"

I stopped for a second. I wasn't sure. Should I give away my last name already?

"Tangery, right?"

She said. I got surprised again. I stared at the ground and nodded carefully.

"Yes. Darkin Tangery."

"Wow, exciting. I heard a lot about your family. And, I am sorry about the incident."

I was very embarrassed, I didn't know what to say.

"Thanks, I guess, but, how did you know?"

"I guessed. I saw a wanted picture of you."

I closed my eyes and breathed out. What was going to happen if she was just playing me, maybe she was... no, not a student. They wouldn't contract a student for that.

"Well, how did you get here? Aren't you wanted by those idiots over there in Atlas?"

She asked, assuring me that she definitely was no undercover cop.

"Well, a teacher here took care of that. I am not longer wanted."

"That's great to hear. Nice sword."

She said impressed and looked at my scabbard. I put my hand on its handle. We walked through the entrance now. It was a stunning sight. Everywhere were plants, trees, and staircases. We walked towards the biggest staircase right in front of us. All the students which arrived went up there, too. We walked with the flow.

"Thanks. I built it by myself, and with the help of my father."

I looked at her.

"What was your name again, excuse me."

"Eda Eisengrau. Just call me Eda."

"Okay, Eda."

I looked at the thing she held in her right hand. It was a badminton racket. It had thick metal strings in the middle of the circle. The main, I didn't know what it was called; let's say the rod functioned as a barrel. It went all the way through the handle and the long part of the racket. A trigger sat at the grip. I happened to inspect Eda Eisengrau a little closer. She wore a light gray jacket which covered her dark gray shirt.

If I walked to her left, I wouldn't have been able to see her chin, because her jacket had an upstanding collar on the left side. She wore a very short red and silver striped skirt with black silk attached below it. It seemed to resemble metal plates. It had an unusual but unique structure. Some of her clothing had red outlines. She also wore a pair of white, high boots with dark gray heels and black leggings. The leggings exposed some of her skin, there was a pattern cut in the stockings. Those caused a difference in her mostly clean and flat clothing. Her light brown eyes shined at me with a lot of friendliness.

Her blonde hair sat on her head curly and light, while her earrings shined golden. I instantly knew that she came from a wealthy family. She had that in her appearance. I asked.

"What is that, is this your weapon?"

"Yes, I call it _Stahlwaltz_. It is my weapon of choice. it looks like a normal badminton racket, but it is actually a racket with the ability to transform into a double-bladed javelin. And it can shoot, too. All I need to do is to transform the racket and then simply pull the trigger. It was designed by my father and built by some of his lab coats. Did I mention that I am the current worlds champion in badminton, for three years in a row?"

"No, you didn't. That sounds cool.

So, you can fight with the racket as good as you can play with it?"

"Yes, to be honest, I am imagining myself in a fight while I play against an opponent. I got some moves with Stahlwaltz. But sure, I can fight. I normally use these grenades here…"

She pointed at her belt. It was modified with pouches and many grenades and round objects, which were strapped on it. A lot of different feather balls. They had different colors, and the most of them were as thick as a fist.

"But all of them are special. They only explode when their tip comes in contact with something solid. They are modified with dust. There are actually a few ones which I didn't even try out yet. And in case you're wondering, this steel grenade here is a projectile which isn't supposed to explode. It acts like some sort of boomerang. When I hit it the right way, it pulls of many spins. Huge or tiny, the way I want it to. It took some pretty damn professionals to create all this, and it takes even more skill to use it properly."

"That sounds complex. You are kind, though. I like you already."

"Oh, thanks. I didn't think that I would meet someone here who is like you. But okay, enough of me. What is your weapon called? Does it have a name?"

"Well."

I looked at my weapon. We still walked up the circular staircase. We soon would come into the main hall which the teachers meant.

"I call it Destiny's Sun. it has two transformations. At first it is a sword, but when I bend the grip, it turns into a pistol. The barrel extends and the blade itself pulls in.

That way, I can make a few damn decent moves, to say the least."

"Quite interesting idea. It surely comes in handy sometimes."

We finally got up the staircase with all the other students. The main hall was huge indeed. We walked in and stood in front of a big stage. The Headmaster stood there already, together with a lot of teachers. He had blonde, mid long hair and a beard, and it all looked like the mane of a lion. Coincidence?

But he seemed very young to be the Professor of an Academy. He barely was older than Greystep.

He looked nice and friendly, and his voice told me that he wasn't all too confident. But he seemed qualified. Eda was stunned.

"Wow, that is Professor _Leonardo_ Lionheart."

"You heard of him, right?"

"Oh, of course. I really am excited to join the academy. He is a talented leader.

I heard a lot of good things about him."

I was fascinated by Eda. She was polite, and she didn't even want to hear anything about my past. I really liked her. Soon all the students arrived in the main hall. The Headmaster tapped against the microphone once, then he addressed us.

"Good evening, students, and welcome to Haven Academy. I am Professor Leonardo Lionheart, your future Headmaster. I hope you've already got a good, first impression of Haven. It is a very nice and quiet place to learn, to study, to make friends and, most importantly of course, become a Huntress or a Huntsman. You should have got the idea what it's like to be a Huntsman already.

It means that you need to risk a lot, you will be in danger sometimes, and you will get pushed to your limits, sooner or later. But to prevent all this, and to give you a maximum quality graduation, we will provide you a very good training. Now, to make it short, I will tell you all the things which will await you in the next days. First, there is the opportunity for you all to make friends, and to get used to teamwork. Then, tomorrow, you will take part in a quest But I am going to tell you everything you need to know when we have arrived there. If you have any regards, questions, or perhaps any problems, don't hesitate to ask me or the teachers for help and guidance.

For now, I wish you all a nice day, and a good night. Thank you."

He walked away from the podium and went to the teachers. The students walked out if the main hall again. Eda looked at me and said.

"Well, I guess it's time to find more friends, right?

We are weak on our own, but together we are strong."

We didn't even need to walk a lot. After our first steps, we were stopped. A boy, nearly twice as strong as me, stepped in our way. He wore a leather jacket and brown trousers. His hair reminded me of a bottle of grease.

"Oh. This can't be, right? What do we have here? Bigwigs."

"What?"

Asked Eda.

"You heard right, you are not going to become good Huntsmen. I bet my head that you are afraid of dirt, am I right?"

"Well." I took a deep breath.

"Then you must walk around with less brain than you already got, buddy. You don't even know who you are talking to. So, please, get out of our way."

"Or what?"

He said loudly. A few students around us looked at us. Great. Attention was exactly what I needed. Thank you, idiot, for assuring that.

"What is going to happen? Are you going to hit me with your cute little racket, or what?"

"No, buddy."

A voice said next to me. It was a girl, just a little bit taller than Eda was. She stepped towards the bully. She was wearing a white belly top. Her thin light brown jacket covered her chest. Her pelvis was covered by a light grey and loose pair of trousers. She held onto a folded in stick, hanging from her shoulder on a thick strap.

"You will get serious problems."

She looked serious, just as the girl next to her. She was a _Faunus_. A human with traces of an animal. She had two sharp, snake like teeth which were visible even when she closed her mouth. She wore an outmoded, bluish armor. It looked a lot like an old soldier's armor, probably from the Great War. Her black boots were modified with some spikes along the heel. Her weapons hung on her waist, two large pistols, placed in holsters.

She spoke up.

"Right. Leave them alone, dude."

"Oh, wow, go back into your jungle, where you belong, snake girl."

This escalated quickly. I took a step forward. I didn't appreciate bullying and racism. Another student came to us. He was playing with a modified Yo-Yo. It appeared to be his weapon of choice. He looked a bit unique as well. Apparently, he was the technicolor type of guy. He wore a green hooded pullover with some yellow and black stripes across it in a wild pattern.

He wore black sneakers and blue checkered tracksuit pants. His eyes were covered by colored sunglasses. His pink hair was covered by a black beanie, on which a catchphrase was printed. _Yo-Yo, yo_. He stared at the ground, or at his Yo-Yo rolling up and down on the string.

"You got a pretty nose; 'd be a shame if it got broken. Accidents happen. Get outta here."

The bully backed off a little bit. The guy with the Yo-Yo stepped in front of Eda Eisengrau and made a trick. Then he stopped playing with it and stared right into the face of the bully.

"Whatcha waiting for? Go read a book, then talk to them again."

The bully looked angered at us all. Then he turned around and walked away.

The snake Faunus girl looked at us all and smiled.

"Is everything okay? Did he hurt you?"

"Nah, everything alright. Thank you for your help, all of you."

"Absolutely no problem."

The Yo-yo dude said. He was chewing gum and looked at us through his sunglasses.

"Name's _Pale_ _Luken_. Nice to meet folk who need help. That mostly means you're cool."

The girl next to me nodded and addressed all of us.

"I agree with you, Pale Luken. I am _Ivory_ _Zogeiro_. And I can't stand out bullies."

"My whole life was formed by bullies, you see. I know how you guys must feel."

The Faunus explained. She made a light bow towards us all.

"My name is _Thistle_ _Turika_."

I introduced myself.

"My name is Darkin Tangery."

No comments. No questions, no insults. Just normal expressions.

"I am Eda Eisengrau. And much obliged."

She said. We all went towards the stairs together. Pale Luken looked at her, but this time he took his Technicolor glasses of. His eyes were, and what a surprise, blue-yellow. I never saw anything like that before. Two colors shared their space. It looked cool though. He stared at Eda.

"Wait. You are THE Eda Eisengrau? Three years' champion in the world tournaments?"

She blushed a little and replied.

"Yes I am. You know me?"

"Of course, Curl. Saw your second tournament in the show, and the third one, too. The way you did ya feints before playing drives amazes. Not even mentioning the second play,

where you flicked, and that hairpin net shot, damn."

"Wow, thank you. I improved my feints with the times. Now everyone thinks I would do a push shot, but in reality, I play a net shot, sometimes while jumping up.

But this comes with a little bit of practice though."

"Sure. Heck, otherwise every rookie could pull off something like that."

I exchanged looks with Ivory. She just stared at them with a surprised look. She shook her head and pulled on the strap of her weapon while we went down the stairs.

"I don't understand that kind of stuff; there are way too many difficult terms for that sport."

I nodded. I completely agreed with her.

"Same here. I prefer the good old card game."

"Wanna go to the tree hall? It is a great place to hang out."

Asked Thistle. She looked at us.

"Sure, why not?"

Ivory replied joyful.

"After all, the Headmaster said that we shall make friends.

And we all broke the ice already I assume."

"Great. Let's go there, then. I still need to master the triple ground bump.

I need a silent place for that, to concentrate."

Said Pale, speaking like he wanted to blow our mind when he said _to concentrate_. He put on his technicolor glasses again.

I asked.

"Hey, what kind of gum do you chew, Pale?"

He gave me a gum in response. I inspected it. It was wrapped in green paper. He wrote something on it.

I looked at it a bit closer. The writing revealed a word. _Activator_.

"Whoa, no, don't you take that. I'm sorry, I gave ya the wrong one."

He hastily took it out of my hand and exchanged it with a different one which he got out of his belly belt, which he was wearing under his hoodie.

"Why shouldn't I take that one?"

"It's even more special and tacky wacky, ya know?"

Thistle crossed her arms and smiled at Pale. He was busy with putting away the gum again. He noticed her troubled expression.

"Nah, it's nothing. It activates my Semblance. I've got like, some sort of, you know, fail in my brain box. That's where the eyes come from."

He pointed at his glasses while he still was working under his hoodie.

"It's not natural. My father and my grandmother had that, too. I discovered some ways to activate my Semblance anyways, but the gum is the safest way to get it rollin'."

He finished with putting the gum away and turned to me again while walking. I should mention that we were still on a staircase, maybe five more steps and the staircase ended. He walked in front of me, backwards. Down the stairs. And he stared at me.

"So, what you got now? I hope not an activator again."

I looked at the wrap.

"Nothing, just a normal one I assume."

I opened the wrapping and chew on the gum. It flattered my tongue with a flavor of strawberry.

I was curious though.

"So, Pale, what does your Semblance do?"

"I can see everything around me. Like them senses of a cat. The sky fades to yellow, metal structures shine red, The skin of humans appears bluish, I'm winking twice as often than normal. And I don't feel heat and emotions, yo."

He pointed at his shoulder bag which he was wearing, which matched with his hoodie.

"I got all kinds of names for 'em. Activators, Headmasters, Headmindeyes, Berry Pops, Shenanigans. Take 'em, but be aware."

Pale bent down in my direction and pointed his fingers at his hand, while twisting his wrists.

"They make your eyes feel your mind, and the mind tells the head to stop.

That's their name, you see."

I was impressed by him. He was a cool and down dude, very comfortable wherever he went.

"Man. You are crazy indeed.

And you are trying to tell me that you are chewing that all the time?"

"Of course. Well, not all the time. And 'specially not the Activators. They're for combat only. The ones I just named, These are the normal kinds of gum I plug,

for example Headmasters."

"Headmasters? Explain."

Eda wasn't sure what she should think of that one; neither did I. Pale pointed at his head.

"No, not the Headmasters like the Professors, I mean a heads master. Like, someone is inside you and commands what you are doing. But this one is still a work in progress."

We continued to walk to the garden area. We stepped in and were greeted by a sight which was difficult to describe. It was beautiful. A big glass roof, and inside of this big hall were trees, grass, ponds and banks. The white walls combined with dark wood really contributed to this healthy appearance. We took a seat on one of the banks.

Ivory took her weapon off her shoulder and put it in front of her.

"What is that, Ivory?"

"This is my weapon. I called it _Shiro_. It can unfold into its full scale, but when it is folded in like this, I can simply pull a lever on it and a blade switches out. Then I can use the string to wield it around and to hit targets. The string can detach with a short pull."

"Sounds very practicable."

Thistle remarked. I angled my head.

"I am interested in your weapons, Thistle. What do you use?"

"These are pistols which I got from my great grandfather. He fought in the war for Mistral."

She took one gun out of its holster. The barrels were very long, probably half of the length of her arm.

"I modified them.

They can unfold a blade which is currently in that steel casing in front of the magazine."

She pointed at the handle.

"And this bends upwards, so it forms a straight line with the barrel.

I can still shoot the gun itself when it is in the state of a bayonet."

"Sounds useful, it surely comes in handy."

Eda commented. She took the massive steel grenade out of her belt and held it over her racket. She let go of it and let it fall on the rackets net. She balanced it then on the thick steel.

"So, where do you come from?"

I asked my newly found friends.

"I'm from Sanus."

Thistle nodded and explained.

"I am coming from the _Kingdom_ _of_ _Vacuo_. I didn't want to attend the academy there.

I wanted to explore the world a bit. Remnant can be beautiful."

Ivory pointed at herself.

"I'm from here. I lived in a settlement, but it got attacked by Grimm, and we had to flee."

"Sorry to hear that."

Pale said. He was playing with his Jo-Jo.

"I'm from _Anima_ , too. I used to live on a small farm, not far from here. My family earns the paper with farming. But to be honest, that's nothing for me.

I want to become a Huntsman to protect the folk of Remnant."

Eda bobbed her head and said.

"My parents, back in Vale, wanted me to join this academy so I could learn to defend myself. Every one of my family was attending a fighting school eventually. After my graduation, I shall come home and continue my career as a badminton world star. But to be honest, I don't want to. And I won't go back. I will spend the rest of my life with being a Huntress. And no one will stop me from doing so."

"You sound confident, curl."

Pale stated. He stared at his Yo-Yo.

"Hey, Dark, why'd you join the academy?"

I thought about that for a second, then I answered.

"I wanted to be a Huntsman all the time. My family did horrible things, and I don't want to continue that. While I was in this one harbor, I met Doctor Greystep. He is a teacher here, and he got me a place. Because of him I am out of there. And out of danger.

And I don't have a bounty on my head as well."

"Hm. Even If you came from that family and did the things they did, too. The thing that alters the case is you regretting that you had something to do with it. But heck, you're even denying them. That means you're are serious, and with that, a cool dude.

And cool dudes are friends of mine."

Ivory pointed at Pale and nodded. She looked at me.

"He is right, Darkin. I think so, too.

If you ever need help with something, don't hesitate to ask."

I was flattered. I thanked her for the offer. Eda carefully asked.

"How did you manage to get a bounty on your head, if I am allowed to ask?"

"Of course, you can. I… my family was famous for doing bad things, especially in the area around our mansion."

Thistle asked.

"What did they do?"

"Well, robbing people. There was that one situation in which they completely flattened a mafia in a village next to us. They also took on mercenaries and politicians."

Ivory was curious. "But you haven't done anything wrong?"

I replied.

"The only crime I committed was to tolerate that stuff. They are dead to me. And probably dead in real life. That is my origin story. The other incidents, I bet you can imagine them."

"Probably."

Eda said. She leant back and closed her eyes while she crossed her arms behind her head. Ivory stared at something behind me. I turned my head around to see a big, blue flower. I looked at her again.

"What is it, ivory?"

"I am just so excited about this place. You see, I have a passion for the nature. That one over there, it is useful for crafting medicine. Put its roots into water and heat it.

Then drink it and it'll help your Aura regenerating. Or this tree over there."

Ivory pointed at a tree which stood separated. Its leaves were a lot thicker and blotched with a darker green. It was massive and huge roots had been growing all around it.

"It has fruits which are secretly hanging very close to the crown. You can't see those from the outside, but if you climb up the tree, you can see them. They taste really good. The nature is very important to me. It gives me something I never had. Passion and peace."

She smiled self conscious, but she didn't explain what she meant with that. No wonder, we all just met.

My look went over to two students who were approaching us. The male student looked a bit shy, though.

He was wearing a uniform, just as the female student next to him. A black jacket and black trousers, with white outlines and a white band around the left arm. I straightened and looked at those students. The boy was holding a bag in his hand. The female student began to address us.

"Good day, fellow students. Do you have a second?"

"Well."

Ivory said and looked around.

"I guess so. What is it?"

"Oh, just a little… call it a welcoming. We are here to present you with your uniforms. They are all handed out to the students. We and a few others volunteered to hand them out to you. Here you go."

They gave each one of us a pair of these uniforms. I took mine and inspected it. I instantly thought about mixing a bit of yellow into the appearance. I probably had to wear something yellow under it. Every one of us got one now, and the students which gave us the clothing went back to their first position. And stiffened a bit.

" So, what is your name?"

Thistle asked the male student. He looked at us confused.

" _Gris_ _Hamelinn_. Why?"

"Oh, we were just exchanging information about each other, that's all."

She replied. Gris Hamelinn sort of bowed a bit and smiled awkwardly.

"Ah, I am sorry.

I always get a bit nervous whenever there are huge amounts of people around me."

"Oh, no problem, dear."

She looked at the girl. She spoke up, before thistle could ask her the same question.

"I am _Yellwin_ _Pyre_. Just call me Yellwin. Same goes for Gris, right?"

She looked at her friends and hit him lightly with her elbow. Gris nodded.

"Oh, of Course. Yeah, Gris. Gris. Just call me like that."

"Okay then. So, what're you doing? I mean, free time and stuff."

Pale asked. He put the folded uniform away and continued practicing with his yo-yo.

Yellwin nodded and said.

"I like reading books, and writing some, too."

Gris bobbed his head and said.

"I don't really have hobbies, I just hang out with people and…

yeah, practice my combat techniques."

"Oh, cool. What do you fight with?"

I asked. Gris looked at me and answered.

"I fight with a rifle which can unfold into a halberd.

It is an older model, but it works out fine."

"Cool. And what do you use, Yellwin?"

She took out a pen out of a pocket attached to her top. She held it up to let us all see it.

"This here is my weapon. Unapproachable, am I right?"

We all looked at it puzzled. I don't want to sound rude, but it actually was just a pipe. An elliptic glass sat on top of it, containing a great deal of purple dust.

"What exactly is that? Looks like a pen."

"It is a pen."

She replied proud.

"Well, something like that at least. That is my weapon. I create solid forms of dust and can throw them around or shoot them, or kick, punch and wield it around. Just as I like.

The thicker the form is, the heavier is the impact. It's that easy."

"That. Is the most interesting weapon I have ever seen."

Eda said fascinated. Yellwin just kept smiling.

"Oh, I know. It is very unusual to see such a weapon, yet alone the idea behind it. But enough talking now, my friends, we still need to hand out those uniforms. Anyways, the sleepover in the great hall will be funny with you guys, I see that you are pretty cool.

See ya."

She waved friendly and went off with Gris. We looked after them. "Man, this is even more fascinating that I thought." Thistle said.

"I didn't expect this whole thing to turn out that interesting."

I stood up and shook my arms a little bit. Sitting around bored me.

"It sure is. I think, we should inspect the school a little bit more, I mean,

now is the best opportunity for that."

Ivory nodded and stood up, too. She lifted her weapon up and hung it over her shoulder.

"Great idea. I really want to see the rest of the academy."

"Especially the garden, huh?"

Pale asked, both friendly and mocking.

"Of course. What did you think, do you really think that I would just sit around in such

an amazing place and study without one plant in my room?"

"That was a joke, sis. Calm down."

Pale explained while bobbing his head.

"I am down, dude."

Replied ivory and cackled. Eda rolled her eyes and addressed thistle.

"Wow, I can't believe it. We hung out for nearly fifteen minutes now,

and they are already becoming friends."

"I know, right?"

Thistle replied while she inspected the uniforms.

I smiled self conscious. These guys were cool. I never had a real friend. Well, there was the butler from my family, _Apilred_. He sometimes was a person I could talk to. And that one guy, a soldier. He was probably against his will there, or he just didn't give two fucks about his job. He was calm, and pretty cool to be honest. But now I could finally forget all that.

We kept walking through the hallways and up the stairs. Everywhere was wooden furniture and casings with medals and weapons. Pictures were hanging all over the place. Either pictures of people, students or Huntsmen. Kings and politicians, and of course pictures of Remnants' continents and every important scenery. Haven was truly an astonishing place.

"Pale, how does your weapon work? I mean, the Yo-Yo is your weapon, right?"

"Yeah, it's my weapon. I use it to block, attack, all thanks to the steel rope. And I shoot fire with her. I got enough speed, she spits fire. Literally."

Pale replied. He took out a red crystal and rubbed it over his Yo-Yo. It was a whole crystal of dust, at least one hundred grams.

"Wow, where did you get such a huge dust stone?"

"I have my sources, pal. Ain't difficult to get that stuff."

"Yeah sure, but you carry around a whole stone."

He shrugged.

"Actually, I have six of those with me all the time."

"It seems to me that you have a lot of connections, with a lot of money though."

"I don't. I am just a normal boy just like you, Dark."

I had to smile. I angled my head and stared at the wall.

"I wouldn't describe myself as a normal boy. I am more like a coldhearted ghost."

I meant that sarcastically of course. The others understood.

"You are a child, just like us, dummy."

Replied Eda and rolled her eyes.

"Probably."

I said and smiled. They didn't have a clue.

I looked around. The great hall was the place where every student was sleeping for the first night. A sleepover. I sat on my bedroll and wanted to begin reading the book about the detective and his cases, but I got interrupted.

"Hey, mind if I have a place here?"

Eda asked. She let her bedroll drop on the ground next to me. I looked at her.

"Why don't you sleep on the girls' side? Isn't this a bit too close to all the guys?"

"Oh, I don't care about that. I'm used to be looked at, you know."

"You've got a point there."

It was somehow difficult not to look at her. She was beautiful. And now she was wearing just a tight shirt and short panties. I didn't speak a lot with girls, or even considered to be interested in them. Eda sat down next to me. She began to take her earrings of.

"What are you reading?"

"Oh, it is just a book I found in my old hideout. It's titled _Tales of the Detective_. It's about a detective who tries to figure out why people were kidnapped in his hometown."

"Wow. That sounds interesting. I have never been into this sort of thing;

reading isn't a hobby which I could have fun with."

"Why is that? Are they boring to you?"

"No. I really don't know. It just doesn't get a hold on me."

She smiled self conscious.

"I really appreciate your manors, Darkin. You are not that kind of boy I see every day. Sometimes they just want to hang out with a rather famous girl, or they just want to have… you know, a relationship with me. because I'm hot or something, I don't care. I cannot even tell the difference, I never had a boyfriend before."

"Well, I can't imagine how that worked out."

Impressive work, Darkin, a real damn gentleman. My tongue was faster than my head. Eda smiled, and then she giggled. She didn't get offended.

"You really don't talk a lot with girls, huh?"

"I am really not used to it, I am sorry."

"Oh, Darkin."

Eda hit me with her fist on my arm. Not hard. More like the friendly way.

"No need to excuse you. I know you already, pretty good I would say."

She leant over to me and whispered.

"And the thing you said with _no boyfriend_.

This could change at any given time, you hear me?"

I blushed very extensive. Eda was an amazing person. I couldn't stop thinking of that last sentence. Also, I couldn't believe that she took my stupid statement so well.

"So, you said you don't speak a lot with girls, right?"

"Yes. I don't know, I'm just not that good at it I guess."

"Don't you worry, Darkin Tangery. I am going to give you some advice on girls.

First of all."

She put her earrings away and pointed at herself.

"You might think that girls normally want gentlemen. Forget that. There are two kinds of girls. Some want boys who look cool and pretend super strong. And there are girls like me. I pay more attention on characteristics and personalities. I don't want boys who try to cover their real personalities, because they are just denying their selves."

Eda looked me in the eyes. They sparkled.

"You, sweetheart. You may be clumsy or shy. But this is you.

That makes you cute in my opinion. You've got chances."

I blushed even harder. My face began to look like a bang red tomato, fresh from the garden.

"I… I don't know what to say. That is really flattering. Thank you. That means a lot to me."

"No problem, darling.

We smiled. Then, I laid down on my bedroll and put my arms behind my head. I stared at the ceiling. I just now realized that there was a huge painting. Right on the ceiling.

"Wow."

I said, stunned by the shier validity of the artwork.

"That is what I call a huge painting."

"What?"

Eda asked politely. I bobbed my head upwards.

"There. At the ceiling."

She looked up and kept looking at the ceiling, too. She widened her eyes as she just realized that we all have been looking at the ground the whole tie.

"Wow. That's really big. What does it represent?"

"It guess it portrays us. Three years later."

"What do you mean? I just see colorful people and environments.

They are holding weapons, or something shiny in their hands."

"Those are Huntsmen. It is a painting which depicts the good things we bring,

the peace we stand for. We defeat the Grimm, so the people around us can life in peace."

"You really know a lot about us. But, now that you mention it.

You are right. It is a beautiful painting."

She laid down on her bedroll. She took a blanket and covered her body with it.

"But, we should fall asleep now. We have a busy day tomorrow."

"Guess so. Good night, Eda." I replied.

"Good night, Darkin."

Three days full of events. The way I came to be a Huntsman. I was certain that it couldn't get better. And soon I was going to find out that this wasn't the truth. Everything went way better in the following days, vastly better than I could've imagined.


	3. Chapter 3 - Partners

_**Chapter 3– Partners**_

Two years earlier. I walked across the front driveway of our mansion. The cobblestones have been cleaned yesterday. I still noticed a few little amounts of water, calmly remaining in the holes and the basins all over the driveway. The huge mansion itself was built on a brick foundation; the walls and the windows were beautifully decorated with dark wooden planks, symbols, vines and such stuff. The rooftop was covered in nearly pitch-black roof tiles. The wall was also covered by trees and plants. My sister stood at the massive steel front gate, together with my father.

"Hey, little brother, where have you been?"

"I was busy, you know that. Did I miss anything?"

My father pointed at my sister. She was wearing her dark blue battle skirt. That meant that she had been off fighting someone again.

"You should have come with us. _Anthracite_ took out the traitor within seconds. All on her own. She is ready."

He looked at the ground.

"But I am not sure about you, Darkin. You still haven't taken part of such a mission. When are you finally going to realize that you can't always run away from it?"

I came to a stop only a few meters away from them. My sister angled her head.

"Right. You are still hanging out with that one girl from the village, am I right?"

"You know exactly that I've abandoned her."

I replied simply. It wasn't true. I still had contact with her. No one could tell me what to do. I wanted to live my own life, and especially not like my glittering family did.

"And I am never going to take a part in this."

"We will see. Sooner or later, you are going to realize that this is the right way."

They both walked past me and entered the mansion. I stood still and stared at the white car which was parked there, ready for the butler to collect it. My father was vain and proud of his title. I wasn't. In fact, I hated it.

"Master Darkin, would you move to the side, please? I need enough space to maneuver the vehicle around."

I turned around and saw _Apilred_. He was the butler of our family. He was about to place the car somewhere it wouldn't stand in the way.

"Oh, it's you. No, sure, I will move out of the way."

"It was a rather quick conversation again, between your father and your sister, am I right, master?"

"You know. Same old father as always. And, please, stop calling me master. You know that I react allergic to that."

Apilred nodded and took the keys to the car out of his pocket. He came closer to me and spoke a bit more reposeful.

"Don't worry about that. You know him, and I know him even better. He is not going to change. And always remember. I am there if you need to talk to somebody."

"Sure. And even if I could, I wouldn't speak to any other guy in here. Bunch of sellouts and idiots."

"But, these are no conceited kind of words."

I sighed heavily and waved my arms.

"Perhaps I am hanging out with the wrong people. Oh wait, I am not even hanging out with anyone."

We both grinned. We had the same humor. At least there was one more human in this family.

I rubbed my hands over my face. I've never been that tired in my life before. It took me some time to grasp what was going on, because I had wandered around like a mummy until I had my coffee. We sat cafeteria. It was time for breakfast and I had made a splendid recovery, nearly too good to be true. I haven't slept that good for a long time, so it was difficult for me to stay awake. Eda smiled and took a berry from one of the bowls which stood on the table. She held it in front of her mouth and looked at me.

"Hey, what's wrong? Are you tired?"

"A little bit. I need to run, and then I shouldn't be tired anymore."

"Huh. That is your own way to stay awake then, huh?"

She asked and ate the berry.

"You could say that. I'm a little more tired than average. I guess I haven't slept that relieved in a long time."

I tried to stay awake, so I grabbed the cup of coffee which I got from the buffet and took a sip from it. The cafeteria was full of students. The noise was a bit loud actually, but I ignored it, so I could speak with my new friends. Pale and Ivory sat down next to us on the table. They were just getting something to eat.

"Hey, good morning, guys."

Ivory greeted us with a cheerful smile. She took a slice of bread and began to eat from it. Eda took another berry.

"Good morning to you. Have you slept well?"

"We sure did."

Replied Pale and drank from a glass of water. The glass had a marking on it, just like all the other cups and glasses. They had the letter H drawn on them in red paint, obviously standing for Haven Academy. Behind the letter was a silver shield. Pale looked at me and pointed his finger at me while he held the glass.

"Looks like you didn't have a great start today, am I right, Dark?"

I made a grumbling noise and buried my face in my hands again.

"He sure had no great start."

Ivory joyfully teased me, surely knowing that she was annoying me. I did not get offended by that. There were worse things I had to endure in my life.

"So, are you ready for the quest today? It is going to take place far away from safety, according from what I have heard."

"Well, either way, Professor Lionheart said that he will inform us today. We shouldn't jump to conclusions then."

Eda said while she let the next berry disappear. I put my hands out of my face and looked around on the table. My hair covered the sides of my face like curtains. I saw the bully from yesterday. He and a few others who appeared to be his companions sat on the other side of the cafeteria. It wouldn't be such a good idea for him to make the same mistake as yesterday. I was not in the mood for him to annoy me. Pale took out his scroll and read something.

"Oh, guys. You ain't gonna believe it."

"What?"

Ivory asked surprised.

"Atlas made a statement; they wanna produce a new type of soldier. Didn't leak much info yet, but seems like they're building a robot army."

"Robots? What kind?"

I asked. That was definitely something new.

"Can't tell. They just say that they're up to something big. Infantry and vehicles are going to be presented to the public in a few days. Top notch technology as they say. Wonder what that's about."

"Dito. Maybe they want to disturb this beautiful peace we are enjoying."

Eda said. She looked excited about the news.

"I don't think so."

I muttered. I knew how the Atlas military and the greater percentage of the people thought. They were easily offended, which was a good way to predict their actions.

"Sure, they are a little isolated over there, and their leadership seems a bit troubling to us, but I do not think that they would really start a war all over again. Also, they just couldn't fight in other environments other than their own. You could easily notice that when they fought against Vacuo."

"You have a point there. But anyways, I must change the subject right now. What are we going to do today?"

Ivory asked. And to be honest, I also wanted to know that.

"The quest is about to begin."

Eda explained. She stood up and crossed her arms in front of her chest.

"We are going to collect all the things we need, prepare ourselves, and then we must meet up on the landing platform. I don't know any details."

I shrugged. I stood up and waved my arms.

"Then let's go and find out, shall we?"

"I think we should."

Pale replied and stood up, too. Ivory and Eda followed us. We started walking out of the cafeteria and to the locker room in which we had our weapons stored. Thistle walked out of a room to our right, just as we were about to enter the locker room.

"Hey, good morning, guys. You're also on the way to the lockers?"

"Yep."

I replied, dreaming my way towards the locker. By dreaming I mean that I was captured in an emotion between happy, motivated and totally incurious while I swaggered along with my new friends.

"I have to hold my beauties in my hand again; after all, they are the most valuable things I possess."

"It's the same with me."

Thistle said and walked next to me.

"They are also my beauties. _Ran_ and _Can_. Those are their names."

"Cool. I called mine Destiny's Sun."

I said. I addressed Pale.

"By the way, Pale."

He looked at me.

"Which name did you give your weapon?"

"I called it _Burgund_. The name tells you everything, am I right?"

"Right."

He chose the name after the appearance of the weapon. It was completely dark red after all. No, it was burgundy actually.

We stood on a glade of the thick forest that surrounded Haven and the many villages nearby. The Headmaster stood in front of us students, together with Doctor Greystep and another teacher who I haven't met yet. All the new students, including me of course, formed a straight row and listened to the words of the Headmaster. He was explaining the upcoming quest.

"All Huntsmen Academies have the very same ritual. We send the students out to a quest, which is going to test your abilities and skills in fighting, and to test everyone's kind of teamwork. You are going to get dropped out by a catapult of an airship high in the sky.

As soon as you land, you will find yourselves in the middle of a hot spot of Grimm attacks. Your task will be, besides surviving, to locate a cave system which contains treasures.

You will only be able to access the treasures as a team of four students. The team you choose will be the team in which you will fight and learn the ways of a Huntsman's life. So, choose wisely, until your graduation, you will spend the most time of your training in that exact same team. Also, the first person you make eye contact with will be your partner until you graduated."

He pointed at himself.

"Every teacher has been strictly ordered not to intervene while the quest is active. Be careful, and stand your guard. Because the creatures of Grimm do not spare anyone."

I looked around in the group of students. Eda listened carefully to his words, while she held her racket in her right hand and moved her fingers to spin it around its axis. Pale played with his Yo-Yo, as always.

Ivory looked around and studied the nature of the forest. A lot of different kinds of trees stood around us all. Flowers, both colorful and magnificent. Birds chirped, and I was probably the only one who noticed that there was a group of deer a few hundred meters away from us. Doctor Greystep spoke up.

"We will hand out maps to every one of you. The cave system is marked on it. There is an abandoned village not far from there, and I am warning you. You shall not enter that area. The village was destroyed recently. We are still investigating what exactly happened there, so please, do everything to avoid that area. We will meet each other at the treasure point."

And with that, we entered the airship which waited for us. A wooden airship built like an arrow head. We all had different expectations of the quest, and most importantly, how it would turn out in the end.

I would bet that Thistle was ready to face every last enemy in her path. She probably was the thrill-seeking type. Eda? She probably would be concentrating on the quests goal. But I guess she would also bring some Grimm down if she had to. Me? I didn't know. I had no idea how this would turn out for me.

But I wasn't concentrating on one aspect of this quest. I could get killed. I could join a team, but the other members may not like me. All those questions shot through my head as we floated across the massive forest. The wind threw my hair everywhere.

"An impressive sight, isn't it?"

Eda asked. She moved to my right and looked down, too.

"Yes."

I replied. Eda looked at the huge forest which reached up to the horizon.

"I mean, how many times do we see the earth from above?"

"Not all too often."

I paused and thought.

"What do you think, how will this all turn out?"

I asked her. She made a serious expression.

"I really don't know. There are going to be some dead students after this, these forests are dangerous. Full of Grimm. Everywhere are lurking monsters. I think that some of us are going to reach their limits."

"We probably will."

I said.

"All part of the plan, for sure."

The female teacher spoke up and addressed every student in the airship.

"Please listen up, everybody. The beginning of the quest is near."

We all followed the teacher into the ship. There were a lot of capsules, lined up in two straight rows.

"Every one of you may enter one capsule. These will bring you safely to the ground. Remember to take on the safety belts."

"I have a question."

Someone piped up in the crowd.

"Of course. What is your question?"

"Why are we going down there with a capsule? Why don't we just jump off or walk?"

"Interesting idea."

The teacher replied sarcastically.

"You could get hurt faster by jumping down, walking could be taking some time and exhaust you until you reached your goal. And those capsules assure that the space between the school and the battlegrounds is far enough. You may now enter the capsules."

I didn't even know her name and I already like her. We all began to split up and get in one of those capsules. Twenty-four capsules. Twenty-four students. Worked out for me. I made my way through the crowd of new students and opened a capsule. These things looked a lot like steel boxes with a seat and a giant window in it. That was probably the case because they were metal boxes with windows. The teacher continued.

"You don't need to sit next to someone you like. It does not necessarily mean that you will land between each other. The capsules are going to travel on different routes. Randomized to say the least."

I sat down in the capsule and put on the safety belt. A male voice appeared and asked.

"Was there ever an accident involving these things?"

"There was one actually. One student died."

It went silent on the ship.

"How did it happen?"

"Its easy. He was a rowdy, and money and connections brought him into the school, however, he didn't follow one rule. He did not put his safety belt on."

My safety belt clicked. Again I ensured me if the belt really sat tight. It was. The capsules closed with two beeping noises. The huge window sealed the capsule, and with a huge blow from below, the capsules were thrown into the air.

I opened my eyes. My capsule landed in a massive tree's crown. I noticed the destroyed twigs and falling leaves behind me which somehow represented a path. It led directly in the direction of the airship. I survived. Nice. Now I had a problem. How would I get down from that tree? I looked around and tried to gather information about my surroundings. Trees. An open field of the size of a driveway.

Flowers. Creatures of Grimm. Many more flowers.

Wait. There were two creatures of Grimm. A _Beowulf_ and a cheetah like Grimm, only having the distinctive bones instead of fur. They did not seem to see me. Or even notice that I was up there. They stared at something to my left. It was that moment that I noticed my current position. Horizontal. Okay. Not bad, at least I didn't land with the window downwards in the mud.

I prepared to leave the steel cage.

I pressed the big red button titled exit in a white color. The capsule opened, and the Grimm did not have enough time to react. I fell from the sky, cut one Grimm apart, made a roll and jumped at the Beowulf.

My jacket began to glow and crackled. Lightning shot out of my stretched out hand, directly at the Beowulf, electrocuting and burning it from inside out. It was one of the best choices in my life to sew some yellow dust into my jackets right arm. I landed on my feet and looked around. The Grimm started to vanish into thin air.

That was a nice start into the quest actually. I brushed some dirt off my shoulders. I was alone, the luck was mine.

Now I had to find someone and make a team. I hoped to find Ivory. Pale or Eda, Thistle. Yellwin, or Gris. They all seemed to be really nice guys; at least they were people who didn't shoot at me as soon as they saw who I was.

And I surely didn't want to get a partner who I never met before. But first things first. I had to study my surroundings. As the teachers said, the forest would be full of dangers. I started walking in the direction in which the Grimm stared. Something must have happened there if they were distracted that easily.

I saw a path. It looked more like a road than just a hiking way. Following it would not be a bad idea, at least that was what my map said. I walked on it for a few minutes, but then there was something on the path.

A giant footprint. It looked like a trace of a huge bear or something, according to my small knowledge about animals. I was about to put my sword away, but I got interrupted by a few loud sounds to my right.

I turned my head around and stiffened my position, and then something awkward happened. The trees broke and fell down as the _Ursa_ impacted and forced the trees to move.

A Grimm which resembled a bear. That explained the gigantic footprint. The only thing I was asking myself was however, how In the world it went flying. It wasn't controlled. It flew over me and landed with a heavy thump on the ground to my left.

I lifted my sword up and turned my face away from the twigs and rubble which followed the creature. I widened my eyes and tried to analyze the situation. The Grimm stared at me with an angered glimpse. Someone shouted at me.

"Out of the way, Darkin."

I ducked without questioning. Many heavy sounding gunshots appeared. A student shot through the path which was created by the Grimm. The student thrust her weapon into the creature with a metallic scratch and killed it. It was Eda. I was really happy to see her. She turned around and stepped off the creature. She looked around and then directly in my eyes with a light smile.

"I guess this makes us partners then, huh?"

"I think so, too. I haven't found anyone yet. But a question right away. How did you do that?"

"What? The Grimm?"

She asked and brushed off dirt from her clean, red skirt.

"I have my ways. As soon as you know how to lift up heavy things, you get a feel for it. All it needs is willpower. And the right armament of course."

"Alright. Technique then."

I said to myself and looked around once more. I was very happy that I met her first. It was a relief for me to become partners with someone who was intellectual and kind.

"Now what do we do next, partner?"

Asked Eda and took out her map. She put it on the ground and unfolded it. She looked at it for a short time and figured out where we were at the moment.

"Our position is south from the goal."

"We have to reach it in time. We shouldn't be the last ones who arrive."

I muttered. Eda kept her stare at the map.

"And why is that? I do not remember the teachers mentioning anything about a time limit."

"No, if we go the same way like the others. They could attract more Grimm, and if we fall behind, we could get the whole horde aiming for us, if you know what I mean."

"Of course. Not bad, Darkin. You certainly got good ideas. What do you say, how should we continue?"

I put my hands in my pockets and sniffed silently. I thought about my plan, then I addressed my new partner.

"I've got an idea. What do you think, Eda? What do you think we shall do?"

Eda smiled lightly. She probably thought about the same thing as I did.

"You want to know what I have in petto? I say..."

She put her index finger at position on the map. She began to slowly slide it upwards and then right.

"I say we go up first, and when we arrive at the river, we can use the water itself to advance quickly."

I lifted an eyebrow up and turned my head to Eda.

"Excuse me? What do you mean?"

"I will show you. It has to do something with my Semblance."

She said.

"Okay, then I guess our goal is somewhere near this one huge mountainside over here."

She pressed her index finger on the map, on the huge red X. We looked up and spotted a lot of mountains in the distance, which also happened to be in the direction of our goal. She pointed at it and nodded.

"It surely looks like it does."

She folded the map and put it in one of her belt bags. She stroke through her curly blonde hair. I only now noticed that she had a few thin highlights of black and red. How didn't I notice it? It was probably because it just blended in perfectly with her appearance. A noise got the attention of both of us.

I tried to figure out what it was. Eda went into attack position. She stiffened and stretched out her right arm. Her racket transformed into its normal style. Her left hand reached out for a grenade. I swung my sword a few times around me. I turned my hand around and held the sword in front of me, aiming the blade at the noises which came closer. The trees in front of us broke and fell. I noticed that some Grimm came towards us. Ursas. We both made back flips to elude the falling trees.

I was in the air. My semblance spawned two trails of the black shadow.

I used the one right from me. It sped me up and brought me behind the Grimm. A swift spin of my sword and the blood thirsty creature fell. I used my momentum to turn myself. I took my knife and landed on the ground. I unrolled myself and thrust the knife at the next creature. My left leg lifted itself up automatically and I spun. I held my sword sideways and slayed it after a lot of cuts. I stared at Eda.

She waited for a Grimm to run towards her. She quickly moved her pelvis up and a feather ball grenade slid out of her belt. She made a spin and hit the grenade with her racket. It flew insanely fast at the creature. The explosion tore it apart. She took a new feather ball and threw it in the air. She took a few steps forward, followed by a very classy maneuver, hitting the feather ball at a forty five-degree angle as it came down. the feather ball flew a quick curve, right into the last remaining Beowulf. Eda smiled and positioned herself in a classy pose.

"Not bad, Darkin. You got some tricks up your sleeve."

She stated and looked around in case there were more threats.

"And you know how to move."

I said and looked around, too, while I took out a piece of cloth and cleaned my sword. I looked at it and noticed something unusual. Instead of having my sword full of blood, it was covered in crusts of dust. I took a closer look at it.

"Hey, Eda, what is wrong with those Grimm?"

I asked. Eda looked at me. Her expression told me that she did not understand what i wanted from her.

"What?"

"Here, my sword is covered in black dust. Not in blood."

"Huh. That's unusual."

She said as she came towards me and stared at my blade.

"Normally Grimm do bleed. I mean, they turn into ashes, but they have blood in them, don't they?"

"I guess so. Maybe those adapted to something."

I replied. Eda shook her head and tried to find another way to explain.

"Adapted. To what? I don't know for sure, do you think this is somehow connected to the quest?"

"It could be possible."

I stated, quickly adding.

"Although it would be strange. Well. We should keep up with the others."

After successfully getting away from that spot, we finally reached the river. The water rustled noisy, which indicated that it wasn't just a small little stream. I looked out for any hazards or students, while Eda crouched down at the river and concentrated.

"So, what is your plan after all?"

"Tell me, Darkin."

She answered. She stretched out her arms and held them above the fresh water.

"Your Semblance. This shadow plus speed thing. Does it work for you exceptionally or can you involve another person?"

"What, like, taking that person with me?"

She nodded and looked at me questioning. I shrugged.

"I never did try it out, you know? What do you think, can it work?"

"I mean. The semblance is something that makes you special."

She kept on concentrating. The water began to somehow decrease in a pattern. Like it was pressed down by a plate.

"I've met people who could only cast the Semblance and use it for themselves only; others did not even work without more people. But it is worth a try."

"Why do you want to know it anyways?"

"Step on the water."

She wasn't joking. She looked at me and waited for me to step on the water, like she said.

"Uhm, what?"

"Step on it. Trust me, it sounds insane, but I can make it accessible. Come on, don't be shy."

I sighed and walked towards Eda. She stood up and pointed onto the area which was supposed to help me to stand on the water. I took a deep breath and walked towards the water.

"I swear, Eda, if this is some kind of joke, I..."

I stopped. I looked down. There was some kind of platform below me, right on the water. It was silver, but not thick or opaque. Bright. I clearly saw the water below it. Surprised, I looked at Eda. She just smiled confidently.

"I always got a backup plan."

I looked at her, and she corrected her statement.

"Nearly every time at least. Anyways, that is my semblance. It allows me to cast shields, to stop whatever may hurt me or others."

"Comes in handy, for sure."

I answered. I imagined everything she could use that kind of Semblance for.

"So, to answer my question. Do you want to try it out?"

"I was not sure at all. I mean, it seemed like a good idea. But did it actually work out? There was only one way to find out."

"Okay. But we have to be certain of what we do. We both step on the platform."

"Exactly."

Eda replied and stepped onto the platform. She held me by the arms, of course, I was... well, feeling something between excited and uncomfortable. She probably noticed it and continued.

"And you cast your speed Semblance. And we both hope that we don't fall off or crash."

I nodded and focused. The dark shadowy line formed in front of me. It span along the river and waited for me to use it. I had to touch it to use it, because the beginning of the line spawned a few inches in front of me. I stretched out my arm and got sucked in. And what do I have to say, it worked. Eda and I sped along the river. What a shortcut. We probably traveled one hundred meters, then we got slower.

"What is going on?"

Eda asked, just as we came to a stop. I breathed in. The only negative one experienced when using his Semblance, was that it worked like his Aura; after using it for quite some time, it exhausts one.

"I am only able to spawn my semblance for a short time. End of the line."

I smiled. I was about to ask how to get off the tiny shield, but Eda, of course, had a backup plan for that as well she used her Semblance to cast a few shields which lead across the river and off the water. And of course, we walked off and were greeted by an interesting sight. I was still wondering how we did not see it in the first place. Eda had no eye for it, she didn't even see it. She crouched down and opened up her map.

"We just covered a lot of ground. We can proceed normally."

I stood still and asked.

"What is that?"

"What?"

Asked Eda confused, then she looked up. She was just as surprised as i was. this thing was so out of place, it did not even seem normal.

"Is that. An airship?"

I asked. Eda advanced towards it.

"It looks like one."

There was a cliff side at least fifty meters away from us. There hung a crashed airship, surrounded by thick trees. It leaned against the cliffs upside down. Moss and ranks covered the nearly intact wooden body. It was a very old model which featured a wooden body and a hot air balloon, but painted snow white with gray and black tiger stripes assorted in a pattern. The balloon was flattened but somehow stood nearly upright. It probably got stuck at the cliff when it slid down, maybe a pointy rock or so.

"It's a Military airship from _Mantle_. Most likely from the war."

"You think so?"

I looked at Eda. She pointed at it.

"Yes. You see that thing which got painted onto the balloon? That is the sign of the disfunct kingdom. And the two stripes next to it? This is some sort of identification for a bomber squadron. Which simply meant that those things carried explosives around."

"Oh."

I replied.

"Why do you know those things?"

"I do read books, but only the oldest ones I can possibly find."

Eda said with a smile on her face. She turned around to me and gestured to go over there with her head.

"Wanna check it out? there aren't many of those around these days."

"Sure. I guess we can use it as some sort of strategic point."

We walked towards the ship, always expecting a Grimm attack. To be honest, I've never killed Grimm before, only after the attack on my home. The soldiers and butlers took care of any creature which tried to attack. But this was over now. I was about to become a Huntsman, and then it would be my task to protect the people of remnant and to guarantee for their safety. I asked Eda.

"I am curious. Did you ever have to fight Grimm, before you signed up for this?"

She shook her head and looked to our right.

"No. I lived in the Kingdom of Vale. Pretty much in the middle of it. There never was a sign of Grimm around our residence. But I trained for that to happen one day."

We got interrupted by some shots in the distance. We kept standing on one point and looked into the direction of the noises, but they silenced again.

"Huh. Seems like some students are fighting Grimm, we better look out."

Mentioned Eda. I kept one hand on my swords grip. My look wandered back to the crashed airship.

"What if it is a trap?"

"What kind of trap are you expecting?"

She looked at me. I tried to think about it. What could possibly happen if there was a trap?

"I mean, rhetorical question, would we be able to see it, or react to a threat in time?"

"I guess so. You see, we're talking about it, so we should be careful enough. We got the topic in the back of our heads. So it should not surprise us."

I was about to add a thought, but in the exact same second I heard how someone jumped down from a tree, right behind me. The person landed, and I wanted to turn around, but decided to not move as I felt how a blade was held to my neck.

"Tangery? How is this possible? And who did you kill to get a place at Haven Academy?"


	4. Chapter 4 - Disagreements

_**Chapter 4 - Disagreements**_

"I..."

I uttered. Trying to turn around or to move could've ended lethal. A Blade was held against my neck. So it would be the best choice not to move.

"I didn't kill anybody. And I am no longer a member of the family. I never was in fact."

I carefully turned my head around to look at the stranger. It was a student. She had long, very heavily styled brown hair, red and bluish clothing, and a sword with a very interesting and unique design. It had engravings all over it. She widened her light brown eyes, but quickly changed her expression. I saw rage. Eda stepped between us. Held her weapon straight at the girls head and demanded very purposefully.

"Do not do anything you will regret. Who are you?"

Her eyes wandered to Eda, then at me again. Her attack pose stiffened.

"My name is _Lycide_ _Flairtone_."

I tried not to laugh. but a giggle still escaped my mouth. I began to grin.

"Flairtone? Are you serious?

You're holding a blade at me only because our families are sworn enemies?"

I just couldn't hold back the sarcasm. It was a way to funny coincidence. What were the odds of me going to the same school as Lycide Flairtone? I giggled again.

"You have to be kidding me."

Eda blinked, still involved in the standoff by aiming her weapon at Lycide.

"You know her, Darkin?"

"Sort of. I heard some things about you.

But I never expected that our ways would cross eventually."

Another student came out of the bushes. It was Yellwin Pyre, the student who gave us the school uniforms, together with Gris Hamelinn. She stared at her, apparently being her partner.

"Lycide, what the fuck are you doing? Don't threaten a student!"

"You don't know anything, Yellwin. It is more like settling old scores."

Lycide said angered, also kind of shaking which indicated that she obviously wasn't sure what she was doing. I activated my Semblance, waited for the dark shadows to form around Lycide in a percentage of a second, and within a blink of the eye, I stood behind her, this time a few meters away from her.

"I am not responsible for the things that happened. Especially not for your brother."

"Shut up!"

Lycide screamed and thrust her sword at me. It was easy to elude her attack, she was not certain about what she was doing. Eda stepped between us again.

"Stop it! I don't know what happened between you guys, but this really isn't necessary. It looks like a fight between seven year olds. We are about to become Huntsmen, there is no time for such bullshit. So please, go your own ways and ignore each other, or let this shit end here and survive together. Damn!"

Lycide thought about it, then she slowly lowered her sword.

"I have nothing to do with the crimes of my family. Honest."

I explained. She just stared at me with a very chilling expression. I knew she wasn't happy with that outcome. I noticed that some sounds appeared, they came out of the tree line next to us. Roars. Creatures of Grimm. Lycide kept her stare at me as she lifted her sword up and held it horizontally.

The blade split in the middle and a barrel was exposed, which was also engraved. Lycide swung it around and held it in the direction where the noises came from, still keeping her glare at me. She shot. It seemed like the whole forest got blasted away. A huge, red blast ripped all the trees in its path out. A lot of the bushes caught fire. The creatures got obliterated instantly. The blast threw the Flairtone girl's hair across her face.

"This isn't over yet, Darkin Tangery."

She said, then she and Yellwin pyre walked away. Yellwin turned around once again and mouthed _I am sorry_ _for that_ to us. Eda and I just stood there and didn't know what to think of that. We looked over to the destroyed part of the trees and then at each other. Eda tried to brighten up the tension a bit.

"I am not quite sure what she meant, but I think she likes you."

"Oh, how funny."

I continued walking towards the airship. Eda followed me.

"But what could he possibly do to prevent this?

This is my only chance to leave the past behind."

"No. I meant, you could speak with someone and try to get as much distance from her as you can. And if there breaks out another fight, trust me, I will step in and punch that sissified lady. It doesn't look bad if a girl hits a girl, you know?"

"Thank you, Eda. I appreciate your desire to help,

but you shouldn't get involved in this. After all, you have a title to loose in your case."

I simply replied. It was very kind to offer me her help, but it wouldn't end good. Eda closed up to me and asked.

"And what about yours?"

I shrugged and kept my stare at the crashed airship while i put my hands in my pockets.

"I don't have a title. If I'd be still hanging with my family, I would become the fucking mayor of _you-are-arrested-town_. I have literally nothing to lose."

"Wow. it really is in good shape. I think we can be sure that this is not a trap."

Eda had been investigating the wreckage and i stood there and watched the surroundings, to be sure there was no danger for us.

"But I have to be a brush off; there is no way inside.

Not a single door which isn't destroyed or locked."

"Shall we keep going then?"

I asked. Eda turned around and walked towards me, nodding in response as she walked.

"We should. Who knows what awaits us in the forest after all?"

"A treasure at least."

I stated.

"Of course, and don't forget that girl which wants to murder you."

"Oh, please don't remind me of that.

It awful enough that she knows that she is able to see me walking around."

We continued to walk through the thick forest. I pushed away some huge leaves and held them aside while Eda walked past me. I did not want to let her get hit by the leaves, they would swing back as soon as I let go of those.

"Darkin, may I ask you what exactly happened between your family and the Flairtones? I'm really sorry to bother you, but I prefer clarity between teammates."

I sighed. I really didn't like to tell anyone about it, but looking at the problems I had, and seeing that this wonderful girl was about to doubt me, like everyone else did before all of this... I just had to tell her.

"My family was evil. They used money and might to purchase some things that were strictly forbidden at that time."

"That time?"

"The Great War. They got themselves soldiers and mercenaries and interfered with the kingdoms and military. After the war, some things eventually got handed over to someone and so on. Documents got leaked and investigations began. And just before the council of Vacuo was about to send someone over to our mansion..."

I paused and looked at the ground.

"My sister came back, Lycide's oldest brother as a hostage. I honestly have no idea how she got him. And it is important to make one thing clear. My sister is very dangerous, and I don't only mean her skills in combat. She is awful in every aspect. And she killed him, no matter what my father told her to do. Cold as ice. And not one year later, someone finally took revenge."

"And, who do you think did it?"

Eda asked. She looked at me with a very compassionate look.

"I don't know for sure. The Atlasian military tried to hunt me down since that night. But they surely did not attack the mansion. In my opinion, something like an advanced military force did that. Maybe from Atlas. But not the military itself."

"I feel sorry to hear all that. Your childhood must have been critical."

I shook my head.

"No. Not at all. It wasn't bad. I just was way too young, to really understand all those things, and for a long time, it did not occur to me what the hell was going on.

Until it was too late."

That conversation really gave me hope for the future. She understood me. I wished for this moment to never end. But it did eventually. Eda stopped dead in her tracks. I quickly came to a stop as well.

"What is it, Eda?"

"Be silent for a moment. Do you hear that?"

She pointed into the direction we were heading. I looked closely at the trees and plants which were hiding whatever took place over there. Suddenly, a huge flame appeared out of nowhere. But I thought I saw that kind of fire before.

"It must be Pale."

I shouted and ran towards him. Eda followed me, taking out her racket and a light blue feather ball grenade. I drew my sword and my knife. We came closer, but we were stopped again. Ivory came out of nowhere and deflected a huge, white thorn, which came flying at her with high speed. She stared at us with an excited expression.

"Oh, hey, it's you again. Wanna help defend ourselves?"

"Sure."

Eda shouted. She went into a stance and watched closely as Pale came towards us with a long jump. He landed next to Ivory and unrolled himself. He was surprised to see us. His yo-yo came back to his right hand and he caught it without looking at it.

"Nice, you're joining us?"

"We'd love to."

I replied. I concentrated. Focusing on my strength and the enemies in front of me. The creatures of Grimm came out of the forest.

Ursas and some which I have never seen before. We all went into fighting position, ready to kill all those hateful creatures. I noticed that all of us acted like a team. Eda and Pale jumped behind us, whilst Ivory and I used the moment to outflank the creatures. They stormed towards Eda and Pale, whom used their long-range weapons to attack. Eda made multiple rotations and shot one feather ball after another. All of them hit their target. She really did know how to play her sport. Pale however, he made so many tricks I couldn't believe it. As if he would do it all day. One after one, the Grimm creatures died and turned into ash.

Ivory and I rushed in from the sides and delivered hard strikes at the horde. I noticed that Ivory had a unique combat style. She downright jumped at those huge terrifying creatures, and absolutely sliced them apart. No shit, she was ready for the life as a Huntress. After some fighting we met up again, slowly realizing that we somehow got surrounded.

We were no longer in the forest, now we stood on top of a huge cliff. The creatures of Grimm stared at us, probably hungry for more humans. We got closer together as we were looking for a way out. A huge creature came out of the trees. It looked a little bit like an enormous hedgehog, but, yeah, only looking like a Grimm. The bones, the black fur, the claws. And the blood red eyes. It stretched its hind legs out and blurted out a disturbing cry. The red eyes fixed us. I was preparing for it to rush at us, I moved closer to the ground and into position, ready to jump or to use my semblance, but Pale did not wait.

He turned around and let his Yo-Yo hit the cliff right below us. Because of the impact, the cliff tore apart below us and we fell. I needed a moment to grasp what was happening. I saw that the cliff wasn't that big, so I tried to slid down the cliff, just as all the others did. Ivory jumped off the steep cliff and unrolled herself on the ground. Eda jumped off as well, but she used her semblance to cast a little shield and used it to jump on the ground safely. Pale threw his Yo-Yo at a massive fallen tree and swung over there.

I felt my Semblance building up, the shadows and the black fog formed a curvy line downwards, and it did its job. I stood up and looked around, after checking the perimeter I kept staring up at the cliff.

"Hey, what was that about? You got scared?"

Asked Eda while she came closer to us all. Pale shook his head. He pointed up.

"That thing is killer. It shot darts at us, big as my arm. We don't stand a chance against it if we are on an open field. There's no way of beating it, but we can down here."

I turned around to face the forest again. I nodded.

"Okay. So, tell us, what is your plan, Pale?"

"Look. This beast only manages to throw them, looks like it can't control their paths.

If we get through those darts all at once, we can kick it."

"Sounds good."

Said Ivory. She looked around and tried to find a good spot where we could perform an ambush.

"What's about the tree line over there? It looks good, and it provides us with cover."

"Sure. Why not?"

I replied. I saw Eda's eyes widening. I looked to my left, and I instantly saw what she was looking at. My weapons grip nearly cracked whilst it had to hold out me grabbing it. Of course, Lycide Flairtone. What were the odds? Not only was she glaring at me as well, but I noticed how desperately Yellwin Pyre and Thistle Turika tried to hold her back. Eda knew what was going to happen again and made a confident attack pose next to me.

"Don't worry. If she attacks you again, you have the right to…"

"What, do you want me to kill her?

No thanks, I kindly decline. I don't need any more problems."

I saw that Lycide came closer, but she did not attack any of us. No. she marched right in front of me.

"You again. I guess we can't go separate ways, isn't it?

Think about it, a Tangery and a Flairtone."

She kind of chuckled. Pale interrupted her.

"Chill down, would ya? We're in this together. Huntresses and Huntsmen. There's no space for any old stories. Move on or change schools."

He paused, then addressed us all. He pointed up to the cliff again. There was no trace of the Grimm yet.

"We have a common enemy. So, let's kill it."

Lycide and I stared at each other. I did not want any trouble, but I still felt that she didn't think of it as I did. But we were interrupted, this time by a deep growl. Followed by many more, and trampling. The ground shook lightly. We all stared up. The Grimm were coming for us. They stormed down the cliff with ease. We all went into fighting position, interestingly enough, it got even weirder, Lycide stood next to me. I noticed that she knew what she was about to do.

"Let's see what the Tangery rogue has to offer."

She remarked. I replied simply.

"You know, this is not a training ground, so you better place your shockwaves good."

Eda used three feather balls at once. They all hit their targets and caused a gravity field which sent the Grimm flying away. Pale began sprinting towards the horde, wielding his weapon, together with Ivory. Thistle slightly outflanked the creatures, whilst I and Lycide waited for the right moment to attack. I saw a dog-like Grimm coming towards me and stormed forward. I ran full speed, my weapon in its sword form. I ducked as soon as I was near the Grimm. It widened its strong arms and tried to give me a deadly hug. I ducked, and as planned, slid over the ground, turning around and slicing the creature in half. My right arm lightened up and the lightning struck the next Grimm.

My look went over to Lycide who still stood there.

A few Grimm had noticed her and attacked. Lycide slowly pointed the sword down at the ground and let it transform. The blade split in half and revealed the barrel. She shot one shockwave at the ground and brought herself into the air with it. She then swung it around and hit an Ursa with full force. Okay, I had to admit, she really had skills. Eda spawned a tiny shield below Lycide using her semblance. But Lycide ignored it and used her shockwave-sword to get onto the fallen tree. She continued to fight Grimm there.

Eda was confused for a second. She looked around and tried to plan a new strategy. I activated my semblance to accelerate me and to push me to her. Because a lot of those spikes coming from the hedgehog-like Grimm flew exactly at her. I tried to push Eda as gentle as I could. We both landed on the ground, but I prevented her from getting killed by the spikes, which rammed themselves into the ground with force. Eda tried to get up, but her skirt got clamped to the earth by a spike, not far from her leg. She did everything to free herself, while I stood in front of her and defended her from the Grimm. I struck one as another one came from behind us.

It jumped at me, and Eda helped me out with casting a shield. The Grimm hit the shield and fell to the ground. Thistle turned it into ash with a marksman's shot. My gaze wandered over to Yellwin and I saw her fighting with her pen. She turned around and drew a thin line into the air. A Grimm rushed at her.

Wherever the pen drew appeared red dust.. She gave the thin line a little push upwards. Then she jumped up and made a front flip. She hit the line of dust with her fist, with a lot of force. The line shot straight at the Grimm and lit it up. The ground had a very fine and thin outline of the red dust now. She landed and smiled. She did something similar with all the Grimm that followed.

"Damnit, this girl is selfish."

Eda shouted and finally got free from the spike. She angrily looked at Lycide and shook her head in disbelief. Her red skirt was ripped apart at one point now. I looked at her.

"Eda, Are you okay?"

"Yes. I didn't get hurt. Thank you very much, Darkin."

I let my gaze wander around on the battlefield.

"No problem."

We defeated nearly all the Grimm creatures. Now there was one more remaining. The hedgehog. It, of course, shot darts at us. Into all directions, but in the air, they somehow all lit up, one by one. Gris Hamelinn came out of the tree line, shooting at the beast. He had a wooden rifle which somewhat reminded me of a blunderbuss, only with a straight barrel. It was self-constructed, and if not, it had to be old. He hit the ground and unrolled himself a few times, using the most various ways possible. He ended up standing next to Thistle. Some darts made it through, and he eluded them by turning around many times, while also firing shots at the Grimm.

"Hey, did I miss anything?"

He asked. I couldn't recognize him at all, he was way more confident than before, when I met him.

"No. you're right on time."

Replied Yellwin, obviously impressed by his skills. Just as we all were. Everyone looked at me.

"So, your plan?"

Gris asked. I didn't know how to answer.

"What? Why me?"

"I heard quite something from you, Darkin Tangery. I think you get to decide.

We all got our grades and titles, but you are an outsider. No offense."

He laughed. I thought hard. He had a point. I might have a solution for the problem, maybe an even better one than the others who only use what they learned. Lycide rolled her eyes as she closed up to us. Thistle was a range player, but also very good in hand to hand combat. same went for Eda, although range was her specialty. Gris, I did not know how to see him for now, but I thought he would be good in any. Ivory was focused on hand to hand combat, as well as Lycide. And I was better in close combat. So, I thought fast. I shouted. it felt like music was playing faster and faster as I called out the plan. It was an interesting feeling.

"Pale, begin spinning your yo-yo and prepare to do this one giant wave of flames you shew us earlier. Thistle, you and Ivory both look after the other as you close up to the Grimm. Be fast."

They started running towards it in zickzacks to avoid being punctured by its spikes. Pale started spinning his yo-yo slowly. He went into position, ready to jump up. He moved with the Yo-Yo. I continued.

"Eda, be our artillery, would you? Cover them."

"Understood. I got 'em."

Shouted Eda and hit a feather ball as distraction at the hedgehog Grimm. She made a back flip while supporting her weight with one hand. A feather ball fell out of her belt. She balanced it on her racket and waited for the right moment to hit it. I continued.

"Gris, Yellwin, you follow me. We will lure it towards the cliff."

They readied for the upcoming charge. I smiled.

"Lycide Flairtone. You get to have the final hit. Get on the tree and aim your shockwave at the cliff. You will know when to fire."

And with that, the plan began. We rushed towards the Grimm creature, supporting our two friends. The hedgehog was immensely agile. He turned around, nearly quicker than us. Although there could fit a hundred normal sized hedgehogs inside it. The spikes could also be shot sideways, which made it very hard to really push it over towards the cliff. I spun many times and each time I faced the creature, I placed a shot at it. They didn't do shit against it, so I took my knife and leaped at the Grimm. It turned away in time and I had to crouch down very quickly, so I wouldn't get killed by it back.

Ivory spun once and jumped up, using the momentum to thrust her javelin into the Grimm's right eye. She shouldn't have done that though, because the Grimm used its claws to hit Ivory. She blocked them with her stick, but she still got thrown back, against a fallen tree, and lost a good portion of her aura.

Ivory shined for a second in a white tone. Gris defended her with his weapon. He turned his rifle into a halberd and cut off a spike flying into her direction. We lost Ivory for a moment. We pressed on, trying to draw as much attention at us as possible. And we succeeded. With more and more attacking and eluding its spikes, we finally got it far enough. I eluded the sharp claws once again, ducked and go down on one knee. I screamed.

"Eda, cast a shield in an angle."

I was relieved to see that she got what I meant. I nearly had no breath in me. And so did everyone else.

"Pale. Now!"

He jumped up and hit the Yo-Yo with full force onto the ground. The flame ball rushed towards the shield and actually hit it. And the flames got directed right into the cliff. Yes. Now all we had to hope for was Lycide's final blow. She made a move which tightened her grip on the weapon, and it balanced her as well. She thrust her sword forward with full power. Then, the final shot went into the cliff. And what can I say, it worked out. A plan that wasn't thought of in more than five seconds. That was a very interesting experience. Huge parts of the cliff came crushing down at the creature and nearly buried it under the tons of earth and rocks. Its head was sticking out, together with the shoulders and one front leg.

It made awful noises, it was pissed that we defeated it. I used my semblance. I noticed that I couldn't do so for any longer. This was the last chance. It made a curve upwards and down again, directly over the Grimm's head. Lycide used her shockwave to catapult herself over to it as well. We both came flying at it on our own ways and delivered a devastating strike. We nearly got blown away by the ash that formed. It kind of shot out of the Grimm's head. Well, I don't want to reveal something too gruesome. But it worked out fine.

I fell on my knees. Destiny's sun, my brave weapon, stuck in the earth. I fell onto my hands as well. I spat and coughed. My breath was gone. Everyone sat down or somehow relaxed for a second. There was silence around for a long time. Then, as Eda came to us, she spoke up and addressed Lycide. I don't blame her.

"We all fought good, guys. Props."

She sat down.

"You, too, Lycide. I don't have anything against you. But, would you please be so kind and explain to me, what that was earlier?"

"You mean the shield which blocked my way downwards? Yes."

Eda stared at her.

"What do you mean? I actually planned for you to land on the shield and help Thistle, and I would've taken care of the small creatures at the tree."

"And how did you imagine that to work?"

Eda nearly flipped, I saw it in her eyes. But she remained calm. She instead held up a feather ball.

"With those. That is why I am here. That was the reason for Darkin to assign me behind you all. Because I can use those things pretty damn well. And you just think of yourself and I nearly died. Luckily for you it was my skirt to take the hit, if Darkin wasn't there to help me."

"Oh, okay. Point taken."

Lycide replied simply, but arrogant.

"I also have to ask you, Darkin Tangery, who was your plan supposed to help?

We now have a student injured."

Ivory wanted to interrupt her, wanted to say that she was fine, but I said.

"Shut the hell up, and let me worry about her, okay?"

"Yeah, she nearly died because of your wonderful idea."

"No one in Remnant could have ever prevented that."

Yellwin threw in an argument. That did not stop Lycide Flairtone.

"And what would have happened if Ivory Zogeiro had no Aura to spare?

She could have a broken back. And what then?"

I stood up and walked over to Ivory. Eda and Lycide gave a death stare at each other. Ivory silently sat there and took all the hits from Lycide.

"You know what, Lycide, you are exactly the kind of person I hate. You can't stand me out, okay, maybe you have something like an almost good reason for that, but while you're throwing your annoying provocations at me, you ignore the feeling of others. Wow, one hundred points for the Flairtone brat, excellent job."

I hissed, loud enough for her to hear on one hundred percent of it. Ivory looked at me. She tried not to cry, and I knew why. I knelt and tried my best to solace her.

"Hey, everything okay? How badly did you get hurt?"

She shook her head.

"My Aura depleted, but I feel good."

I nodded slightly. I put my hand on her shoulder.

"Would you allow me to heal you?"

She looked at me. Pale came closer to us all as well.

"How'd you mean that, Dark?"

"I have a gift. My Aura allows me to strengthen others.

I also have a stronger Aura than average. Please, would you let me?"

"Alright. Do it if you can."

She replied. I concentrated and closed my eyes. Both our Auras shined bright. I felt her Aura like something to take and modify. It was warm, full of life, and strong as well. I healed her, the white shine faded away again. I stepped away from her, and Ivory stood up. He eyes were sparkling.

"Wow. How did you do that?"

She asked. I smiled.

"I filled your Aura again, by giving it a… call it a jump start."

Everyone else came up to us. Yellwin said.

"According to the map, we shall continue our way in that direction."

She pointed into a direction which led to a huge mountain in the distance. We started going into that direction, everyone except for Lycide. She looked at Yellwin.

"What do you mean? What is with our plan? It surely is better than walking over there."

"Actually, Lycide, I don't care how you get over there, but I don't want to travel with a person like you. Darkin was right."

"What?"

She asked loudly. Thistle nodded.

"Not a way to treat somebody, Yellwin has a good point. Find someone who is willing to be your partner or teammate. Teamwork is something you still have to learn I assume."

I helped Ivory walk, she supported her weight on my shoulder. She got seriously insulted. After all, we had to be there for her, at least for a while. We went a bit further down the field, until Lycide cried out.

"I am sorry, Ivory."

We all turned around. Lycide stuck her weapon into the earth. She knelt.

"I didn't mean to insult you in any way. I admit it; I can't be on the same spot as Darkin for too long. The past is way too painful to let it go so easily. Since I lost my little brother, I felt a need to get revenge. I loved him."

Now Lycide was about to cry. Yellwin slowly made a step into her direction.

"He was my brother, the kindest of us all. He was innocent. Why did he need to die? I know that Anthracite was the one who killed him, but the fact that Darkin is her brother, yet alone the thought that Darkin stood there and took it like it was nothing makes me puke. It is nothing personal, but I guess I got upset. Please, I don't want to insult anybody. But I can't control the hatred I feel."

Eda and I looked at each other, then at Ivory. She nodded and let go of me.

"I accept your apology. I understand your situation now."

I slowly walked towards Lycide. I wanted to end it once and for all.

"I know what you think. I understand you as well. But you must listen to me. I did not kill your brother, I did not even understand the whole story until it was too late. Heck, I didn't even know who my sister brought with her that day, until she came to my training and proudly announced that she killed your brother. Guess how this information was leaked in the first place."

She stared at me. I pointed at myself.

"I told people, who would go out and tell the right ones about it. I helped to bring down my own family. Please, I don't want any trouble, so let's come together as one and take revenge on them. What do you say?"

I stretched out my hand. We were too far away for that, but I meant it in a figurative sense. She nodded.

"I see. I am sorry, it is difficult for me."

"Doesn't matter. We can work on that. Together."

Yellwin jogged to her and walked by her side. We all split into a L-shaped formation. Thistle in front, Pale and I helping Ivory out, Gris behind us, next to Eda, followed by Lycide and Yellwin. We marched towards the quests goal, finally having enough of fighting between us I guess. Ready for whatever would be thrown at us.

I thought about us all. We were eight students working together. Everyone had his own ability, all of us were unique, and all with different thoughts. Two teams could be formed out of us all. To be honest, I had hoped for me to at least get in a team with Eda. She was such a wonderful person, it was unbelievable. But for now, I had other things to worry about.

Because the one thing that we all asked ourselves was.

If that fight against the Grimm earlier was so intense, what would await us at the end?


	5. Chapter 5 - Treasures

_**Chapter 5 - Treasures**_

Thistle came back to our position. She had quietly moved forward a bit and tried to check out what happened to the students in front of us. We were interrupted on our way by shots and a lot of noises which indicated that they might not be okay. We had moved very close to the goal, only a few hundred meters until we made it. There was just a slight problem. A huge open field was in front of us again, but this time it was a swamp.

"The swamp surrounds the mountain completely. There is no faster way to get to it."

Thistle informed us. She ducked and snuck behind the huge fallen tree we all hid behind. We still were in thick forest, but it got way less vegetated in front of us. Just like if someone had taken all trees around the mountain and threw them far away. I peeked over the tree. I closely inspected the swamp.

"Are there any traces of the other students?"

Asked Gris. Thistle shook her head.

"Nothing. It seems like there was no one at all. But I saw something quite interesting."

She turned her head towards Eda.

"You said you two found an old airship earlier, did you?"

"Yes. Why? Did you find more of those?"

Thistle giggled, somehow sounding insane.

"You mean a few? If I saw it right, then I think there was a whole battle down there.

I found very old traces and parts of weapons, ships. Everything."

"What if a few of those weapons were from the other students, Thiss?"

Asked Pale. He pointed over to the swamp.

"Maybe they'd get ambushed up in there by something."

"No, I don't think so. All the weapons over there are rusty or completely out of our league. Nothing a student would use nowadays."

"Okay, so what do you say we shall do, based on what you saw?"

Lycide came closer to her, also crouching.

"To be honest, I think we shall risk it. I mean, there is literally now way to get across but the swamp. Or Darkin, you got a better plan. Because I am no strategic person.

I just follow."

"Honestly, I have no idea as well."

I replied. I addressed Lycide.

"I want to hear your opinion. What do you think?"

She was surprised, but she quickly got over it.

"Ehm, well, I'd say we take the swamp route. Everyone okay with that?"

"Sure."

Replied Gris. Yellwin took out her pen, but she reached behind her back and took out a thin blade and attached it to her weapon. Gris transformed his pike into its rifle form again, while Eda put her hand at her belt. She looked at it with widened eyes. I asked what was wrong.

"Uh, I really need to use my weapon more in its rifle form, because I don't have that many feather balls left. I only got three remaining. And my permanent one."

"What kinds of effects do you still have?"

I asked. Making sure what we all had equipped. Eda counted her arsenal.

"One fire, one ice and one lightning. I can use the ice feather ball for giving you guys cover, something like a fog."

"Good to know, but you won't be behind us this time. We all move together, I don't want anything to separate us."

"You got a bad feel, dog?"

Pale asked while he prepared his Yo-Yo and took out a gum.

"I have more than one bad feeling, my friend. Fine, I say we stick together as close as possible, just in case."

"Clever idea, together we are strong. Isn't it?"

Remarked Yellwin while she pushed her elbow against Lycide's arm while smiling so playful it was awkward. Lycide smiled back, slightly annoyed.

"Okay, okay, you don't need to rub it in my face."

Thistle took out both of her weapons. Ivory did the same, leaving her shield on her back this time. Eda nodded. We all were ready. I transformed my sword into the pistol form and stood up. We walked down the hill, leaving the thick forest behind us. The swamp wasn't that huge, it only stretched out for two hundred meters at most. I looked at all of us; I made the first step, slowly testing out the consistence of the soil.

It was dry enough to walk on it, but sometimes, our shoes would become stuck a little. There were nearly complete dry paths, but they always had turns and dead ends in them. The landscape was covered by fallen trees, and really, a lot of rubble, which was looking like the remains of an armada.

I had an uncomfortable feeling while leading everyone through the mud. We kept going though, before we even got stuck. Eda submitted something frightening.

"You know, what if there is a huge Grimm lurking right below us?"

Well, I had to admit, Eda scared us all. We all looked at the ground simultaneously. It could have been true, that was the scary thing. I quietly said.

"Guys, if something happens, we book it, okay?"

"Yes, sounds good."

Gris replied. He held his weapon tight in his hand. I did the very same. My eyes wandered around on the swampland. To our left was a huge wreck of another airship. I thought I saw something moving. The feeling of us being watched did not fade away. We made it half across the swamp, always looking out for any sorts of danger. Suddenly, something in the mud moved. It moved towards us.

It was too quick for us to react fast enough. A huge creature, looking like a salamander, shot out of the mud in front of us. It wasn't a Grimm though. It was normal living being. It rushed towards us, obviously trying to divide us all. We eluded, but shot at it. It roared and vanished in the mud again. I aimed my weapon at the mud and wanted to shoot my shockwave, Lycide however, she shot one of her shockwaves at the mud. It surely did more than mine. I hoped for the animal to understand that we were out of its league. Still, I shouted.

"Everyone run. Go."

We began to run towards the mountain. We had to make it in time, because the monster wouldn't wait for us to reach it. And really, it came out behind us and chased us. Yellwin noticed that as well, so she used her magical pen to draw a thin line next to her while she ran. She ended the line, and the red dust slowly floated towards the ground. As soon as it made contact with the earth, flames shot into the air behind us. The creature which was behind us got either roasted or it stopped following us.

We nearly reached the edge of the swamp, but of course, we got interrupted by the monster again. Only that it brought friends and family to the part now. Five of these monsters stood around us now. We instantly formed a circle and protected each other's backs. We stared at the monsters as they walked around us. They probably just waited for one of us to make a move. They were smart. Ivory whispered.

"What do we do?"

"Attack I guess."

Yellwin suggested.

"They won't stay around us all day."

"Well then, Ivory and I got the biggest one."

I said. Ivory smiled.

"A good idea you got there. It might be easy enough."

"Pale, you and I, against the one over there?"

Eda asked. He nodded.

"Yeah, Curl. I'll stick with ya."

"Yellwin, what do you think?"

Lycide asked her partner and pointed at one of the creatures.

"How about we take on that one over there? I don't like how he's watching us."

"He won't stare at us any longer."

Thistle moved a little bit closer to Gris. Everyone else had found their partner.

"You shoot it and I outflank it?"

"Good idea. Aim for the eyes, _Snakes_."

They exchanged looks. Gris grinned.

"Calm down, I need a code name for you, don't you think?

Pale called you _Thiss_ , which sounds like hiss!"

Pale looked over his shoulder with the widest grin possible.

"Okay, for now it is good enough, but you promise me to come up with a better one in the future, will you?"

"I promise. Now, let's move guys."

We jumped at the monsters all at once. Now we had the upper hand. We struck the monsters down, on our own ways and with different techniques. I used my knife to throw it at the salamander's eye, and I aimed right. The monster screamed and rushed at me. I looked around and tried to analyze the situation.

"Eda, shoot it."

She shot a round at it with her high caliber weapon. I jumped up. The monster slid over the mud and kept lying below me. She had hit it in its front leg. I turned around in the air and transformed my weapon into the sword version. I used my momentum to slay the beast, and to manage that, I landed on its neck. Now all I had to do was too thrust my sword right into its neck. It did not die yet though. Eda had to use one of her feather balls. She took out the last remaining blue dust one. She held it high up in the end and hit it with her racket, why is she was, of course, doing a trick. It hit the beast's eye as well.

All our other friends were also nearly finished with getting all the remaining monsters away from us, or they were killing them. We had no choice but to defend us, I mean, the shockwave which Lycide sent into the mud was sign enough for them, wasn't it? Now there still was a problem. The fighting with the monsters had one disadvantage, because we all got far away from each other. A perfect target for more Grimm to appear. And what can I say; it was just if these things had read my mind.

I felt the earth shake below us. The mud got shoved to the side behind me. I turned around and held my sword in the direction of the noises, Eda followed my move. Ivory and Pale joined us. We stared at the earth. Something formed some sort of little hill. But it had to be big. At the same time, the others were concentrating on something coming out of a hole in the ground next to them.

It was a big Grimm. It reminded me a lot of a spider. Its eight or so eyes blinked and stared at our friends. At the same time, the top of the hill behind us shot into the air, and a Grimm looking a lot like a giant rat emerged from it.

It screeched and instantly ran towards us. It had deadly looking teeth, which were probably sharp enough to rip us apart.

"I sincerely hope you ain't afraid of mice."

Eda just gave me an incredulous look and inspected the Grimm while backing up a little.

"Trust me, sweetheart, no animal in remnant could terrify me."

"Guess we're a team now, right? It's neck or nothing."

Pale stated while he went into attack position. It was that moment that I noticed how surprisingly optimistic Pale was. He always had a loose lifestyle, like he was just hanging out with people. His attacks were always looking like he was thinking about something completely different whilst he was fighting scary creatures. For example, what kind of milkshake shall I get tomorrow? Or, how can I do an even better trick while fighting a huge, terrifying monster, which is the most feared thing in all of Remnant?

I looked at him, and he smiled back. His technicolor glasses were hiding his eyes. Ivory let her weapon fold out and the blade switched out on top.

"What's the plan, guys?"

The Grimm started to get closer. It soon would be in our reach. I thought about it quickly. I saw how the Grimm charged at us. It seemed like it was fast on its legs, but only on straight ways. It had to dodge a crater on the way, and it slowed down immensely. I said.

"Eda, go around it on the left side. Ivory, Pale, you take the right. Go."

The creature was now in reach. It kind of stalled, making itself huge in front of us. I made a back flip and crouched. My friends moved around it and attacked. Pale crushed his yo-yo at the hind leg. The creature just simply used its tail to hit him. He eluded, but lost balance for the attack surprised him. He stumbled back, while Ivory used her chance to walk behind it and to jump on its back. She thrust her weapon into the white bones which all the Grimms had. The Grimm noticed that and tried to get her off by jumping and bucking.

Eda used her massive steel grenade. She threw it up in the air and hit it with might and main. The grenade flew around in circles. It hit the creature's face once, but the creature quickly learned. It hit the grenade with its tail and brought it down into the mud. Eda surely had met her match. She got as mad as a hatter. She ran towards the creature and transformed her weapon. Its blade met the neck of the Grimm.

I also attacked the Grimm's head, to support Eda with holding it in place. The long and the short of it was that it yanked its head to the side, causing me to cross weapons with Eda. We both looked at the creature. It did something very interesting. It lunged at us with its body. Ivory lost the grip of her weapon and plunged down. Pale used his Yo-Yo to cause a flame ball at the creature, interrupting it from attacking us.

"Lets hit it, bro."

He shouted at the rat. It turned around, of course being slower than its running speed. Pale jumped onto its back and landed next to us. Ivory stood up quickly and backed away a little bit. The creature now stared right at her. I shouted.

"Keep the ball rolling, guys; we can get it that way."

Eda nodded and ran towards the rat. She went around it and stabbed it into its stomach. It was difficult; its body was covered by a huge rib cage, so it was taking her a very precise stab. The Grimm bucked again, obviously having enough of it. It roared and hit Eda with its front leg. She got knocked back a bit. She was quick enough to block its attack. I started walking towards it. My weapon pointed at the earth behind me. I focused on the creature. Ivory probably knew what I was going to do. She walked up to me.

"What are you doing?"

"I am going to kill it. You two have to make it stall again."

They both nodded and ran up to the beast. Eda crawled backwards, trying everything she could do to get away from the Grimm which was about to kill her. It made a growling noise, but it got interrupted by pale who hit his weapon right onto its head. Of course, that did not do something to it at all, but it got distracted from our friend.

Ivory rushed to Eda and helped her up. She also grabbed her racket and they both booked it. I stiffened my pose, casting my semblance and waited for the right moment. I went into posture, ready to attack. Pale did everything to make the creature to stall. Finally, he got it. It went up into the air, gave off a scream and growled, focusing its glaring red eyes at Pale. I had found the right moment.

I touched the black shadows in front me with my finger. I held my weapon tighter as I got catapulted towards the monster. My weapon struck its stomach. I did not waste a second, I turned around in mid air, and as soon as I landed on the ground I jumped with full force. The creature was not able to react that fast.

Its neck got sliced open as my sword forced its way through the Grimm. I landed behind it and crouched. Again, it fell and vanished; only leaving ashes behind. We did it. We worked as a team, and it wasn't that bad as well. I stood up and put my sword away. I happened to look at the ground in front of me, and found the steel grenade which she lost seconds ago. I picked it up, and my look went over to the others. They just dealt with the huge spider. It was probably even worse judging by the looks on their faces. They were even prouder of their work than we were. I turned around and walked to Eda. She put her racket at the side of her belt. I held the grenade up and remarked.

"Hey, that belongs to you I assume. Is everything alright?"

"Yes, just got dirty by falling down. Thank you all."

She smiled and took her grenade. I mentioned to her that she had some mud on the inside of her collar.

"You better get rid of that before it slips inside."

"Oh, there is nothing worse than that.

It gets cold and then it is stuck inside your clothing. Just horrible."

She said sarcastically, right after killing the biggest Grimm we have ever seen. We walked away from the huge pile of ashes which faded away in the wind. I noticed that no one looked out for a safe trail through the mud anymore. We all were hardened now. Lycide shouted at us while she waved her sword.

"Hey, guys, catch up. What are you waiting for?"

"First, we want a cold drink."

Ivory replied sarcastically.

"And an airlift to our destination wouldn't be bad as well. "

We laughed, obviously exhausted from all the running and defending ourselves. We had spent all morning in this forest. Don't think I'm whining, I have been through way heavier stuff, like escaping from a huge manhunt and traveling to a different continent while being chased. It seemed like I was finally free, although I was bound to protect the people who can't defend themselves. But that was something I could do my whole life, and it was something I was good in, too.

We climbed up the steep cliff. It wasn't that huge, it was not as large as the mountain of Haven. But it still took some sweet time to get up there. Lycide and Yellwin were busy with figuring out where we were. Everyone else kept silent, looking around to spot enemies and thinking about something to break the silence. I held the hilt of my sword in my hand, always prepared to draw. Thistle scanned the big rocks to my left with her eyes. Pale took out a normal gum.

"I don't think were supposed to be up here. There should be a cave system below us. are you sure we have to head up here?"

Lycide was surely worried about our way up the hill.

Yellwin seemed to know where we had to go. She pointed in front of us.

"Trust me. I have a feeling it is up there somewhere."

"Hey, guys."

Ivory spoke up. She pointed her thumb behind us.

"How did you get rid of the spider anyways?

We absolutely destroyed the Grimm that attacked us."

Thistle let her pistols spin in her hands and held them up.

"It perished after taking so many hits I lost count. But we killed it, isn't that right, Gris?"

"Of course, dear."

He nodded and looked at the scenery to his right.

"But honestly, I was scared a little bit. I think everyone was."

Lycide and Yellwin were still concentrated at finding the right path. They didn't even notice us speaking. Eda giggled.

"Oh we all were scared a little bit. Don't blame me; I nearly got killed by the rat creature. Although I like the quest so far. It was thrilling."

"Yeah, curl, but don't you overdo. There's still time left till we get outta here."

He spun his Yo-Yo around again. It landed perfectly in his hand, and it did not take him one look to precisely coordinate it.

"Grimms are still an issue."

"Trust me, Pale, I won't. I am cool-headed as always. So, boss."

She addressed me. She caught me off guard with that nick name. My concentration was interrupted. I had focused on a sound behind us. I looked at her.

"Are we out of danger? Or is there something heading for us right now?"

"Second."

I simply answered. This time, even Lycide looked up from the map. We all stopped dead in our tracks. I slightly drew my sword out of its scabbard. Eda took her last remaining feather ball grenade. A purple one, holding purple dust which meant she could move objects without having to touch them.

"Use it wisely, Eda."

Thistle said, getting into a stance. Lycide came closer to us all.

"What is going on?"

She saw I was concentrating on my surroundings. I felt something. A sound appeared in my ear. It was very quiet. I was the only one who was hearing that, judging by the expressions of my friends. I sounded very familiar. I haven't heard that kind of sound since… I widened my eyes and turned around.

"Get into cover! Quick!"

I screamed in horror. To my surprise, everyone reacted to a threat that wasn't even visible. We crouched down at the huge rocks and the cliff. Everyone looked at me or around us, to get a clue of what I was talking about.

"Darkin, what is going on?"

Yellwin prepared herself for combat. I said while transforming my sword into the pistol again.

"It's an airship. It is one of the bad guys."

"What?"

Thistle and Ivory looked at each other, then at me.

"Who are the bad guys?"

" _Captain_ _Verden_. Stay low."

Then they appeared. There were two airships flying on low altitude with high speed, fortunately passing us. Each ship was a very rusted and old machine, kind of formed like a metal boat with six tiny wings when looking from below. Two large turbines attached below. The familiar three skis on legs attached to the flat metal chassis. The crane on the back portion of the vehicle was folded in. The middle of the ships was round, formed like a cylinder. It housed the crew cabins and storage rooms and so on. Both were relatively big, but they were fast. They shot through the air, luckily not seeing us. I stood up as soon as both ships passed us. Everyone else had a very confused look on their faces. Everyone was frightened except Thistle. She knew exactly what that was.

"What the fuck was that about? What was that?"

Lycide got somewhat hysterical. I sighed and pointed in the direction the ship was heading.

"Those were two smuggling ships. It was probably sent by Verden.

What was it doing here?"

Thistle shrugged, still holding her weapons tight.

"I dunno, maybe they were doing business."

"Do you know them?"

Gris asked us. We both nodded and said at the same time.

"Old friends."

We looked at each other. Thistle explained herself.

"I met those people before; they were having their ship unloaded in our little settlement. They are really mean."

"I cannot argue that. My family had to do with them a lot. They made deals with the leader himself. I don't know for sure, but these guys are very bad."

"And why did we have to get into cover then?

They seemed to be minding their own business."

"I tell you, Yellwin, I know these guys."

I replied while watching after the ship. It flew slightly higher now.

"And they don't like the law, especially not Huntsmen.

If they would have been in a bad mood, then we might have been killed."

"Those bad sons of salamanders smuggle shit?"

Pale stated. He continued walking up the mountain.

"Then we should be careful, boys."

Earning a teased look from all our female friends, he continued. We all followed the path up. The higher we went, the sadder the scenery became. Less vegetation, more rocks and sand. There was literally nothing beautiful in our perimeter. the swamp gave off a very creepy vibe when I looked down at it. I looked at the scenery as Ivory came closer to me. She waited a second before talking.

"Hey. Darkin. I wanted to thank you for the thing you did for me earlier.

You've totally proven yourself."

"It was no problem at all, my dear. I had to do something, you were about to lose it."

I replied simply but kind. Ivory was a wonderful girl as well. She had a kind nature and a very sensitive personality. But I understood how she felt after all, she reminded me of someone special, back in Vale, a few years ago.

"Listen, I really don't want to bother you with that, but."

Ivory looked at the ground in front of her. She put her hands on the sides of her belt.

"What happened to your mother?"

She caught me off guard with that. I looked at her.

"What do you mean with _happened_?"

"I am sorry, but all I heard you saying about your family so far.

You only told us about your father and your sister. Is your mother in your life as well?"

I just noticed what she meant, what she thought happened. I quickly smiled and shook my head.

"Oh, no, please. She is not dead."

I sighed. It was important to tell her. After all, it was a very quiet moment now. And a conversation was perfect to pass the remaining time.

"She left us when I was three years old. She couldn't handle the path our family walked."

"Was she a part of your family before?"

"No."

I replied.

"Her name is Onyx Yaming. She married into our family.

And luckily she was smart enough to leave when she was able to.

She was the kindest person I've ever met. I miss her though."

"I relived some memories of me and my mom."

"When I was little we played in the garden, a wonderful sunny day, peaceful. The sun was bright, if I looked in the direction of my mother, the sun would blind be so much I had to look away again. The sun seemed to sit above my mother's head; it was like she was the sun herself.

She was giving off warmth. But she did not need to be the sun for that to work. The day she left, my father was as sad as never before. That was the last time I have seen him cry. After that, it got way worse. The family started to become even more criminal, the future was about to crumble and fall down, shattering on the ground into a thousand pieces. Hunting, killing, operating the governments and kingdoms, overthrowing villages. He probably did that all because of anger.

I did not understand what was going on until I grew up."

"That sounds horrible."

Ivory rested her hand on my shoulder and gave me a confident smile.

"I feel bad for you. If you need to talk, don't hesitate."

"Thank you, that's kind of you."

Gris suddenly stopped dead in his tracks. He turned around. I looked at him.

"What's wrong, buddy?"

"We should run. Now!"

I didn't know what he meant. But I soon understood. We all looked behind ourselves. And what can I say, Thistle and I were right. They came back. The airship was flying towards us with insane speed. It shot missiles and bullets in our direction. Those things were equipped with everything imaginable. The bullets impacted right in front of us, causing the sand below us to shoot high up in the air.

The missiles took a little bit longer to reach us. We had time to jump away. One missile struck the exact same spot where I stood just half a second ago. My semblance brought me into safety. Gris and Thistle started shooting at the airship as it passed us. It made a roll and the turret was now exposed. These ships all have a square structure right behind the cylinder, which basically is the primary weapon of those ships, together with huge guns located at the front. Those can't be turned around; they can only be shot straight. But the turret can move. It targeted us and shot a few bursts at us.

Eda used her semblance to protect the others from being hit. Lycide jumped to the side and transformed her weapon. She shot, and she hit, but the airship was simply too strong to be affected by it. It flew a huge circle; they tried to attack us again. Obviously we witnessed something we shouldn't have. I shouted.

"Everybody, get to the cave, now. We can't defend us with our weapons only."

"What do you have in mind?"

Yellwin asked loudly, while we all began to advance towards the final goal of the quest. I shouted back.

"We use the terrain to our advantage. Now, we need to lead those guys towards the mountain. Eda, you still have the one feather ball left, right?"

"Yes, I have. Why?"

She looked at me with a very vulpine smile. She understood what I wanted from her. The airship was inbound again. It shot more rockets this time. Gris stopped and turned around. He lifted his pike up and changed its form into the blunderbuss version. He aimed at the rockets and, well, I don't know, but it seemed like he activated his semblance. He spawned many clones of him around him.

He made a move with his empty left hand in every direction, and everywhere he had pointed, there stood exact lookalikes. Instead of him standing there, there were nine more copies of him. They all shot at the rockets, causing them to explode in midair.

His versions vanished again, simply shrinking into Gris. It was like he sucked them in. He made a back flip and jumped away to elude the bullets which hit the ground in front of him. I started running. Thanks to my Semblance, I got up onto a huge rock. I crouched and aimed my sword at the airship. It flew at my friends who were booking it, obviously the pilot needed to react to my movement first. I don't blame him. It goes without saying that my Semblance surprises nearly every attacker I face. I turned my sword into its pistol form again.

The blade retracted itself, the pistol and the barrel pushed out, the grip bent. Now all I had to do was to distract the ship from my friends. I exchanged my weapons red dust silo with a blue one. The tank opened and dumped the next bullet full of the red liquid. I shot. The blue dust produced a huge fog. I shot again, after the second shot I changed to normal bullets again.

The pilot changed course and slowed the ship down. It now nearly hovered. I saw the one huge problem that came with that maneuver. The front wings of the airship lowered themselves, which meant that he was steering for me. A huge amount of bullets shot at me. I jumped backwards and nearly got hit by some.

The weapons probably had something like an automatic aim tool installed, or the pilot was very good at steering, because he really challenged me. I ran towards my friends who were now focusing all their fire at the airship. I dove into cover and landed hard on my hands. Pale helped me up.

"Come on, man, we gotta get out of here. It's cooking."

"You are right. Let's move!"

We continued on the path, followed by the airship. It was accelerating now, and luckily it hovered by, but the turret targeted us once again. It sprayed bullets at us as if it was raining. There was dude on the stern, operating a machine gun with four barrels. This wasn't a misunderstanding; these men really wanted us dead. We blocked the attack or jumped aside, whatever each one of us chose to do.

I chose to advance towards the ship. It hovered through the air in front of us, but the bullet rain was too intense. The ship accelerated further and flew away, but this time it did not turn behind the mountain. This time, fortunately, it made a turn in the open field. We all ran up the path, and just after a little while, the cave finally was in sight. But the airship flew right towards us again. But this time it would work, this time we could beat them. I nodded at Eda. She understood what I wanted from her.

She turned around and kept walking backwards. She took her feather ball and took a stance. I stood next to her. I aimed my pistol, ready to intercept the missiles. Thistle and Gris noticed what we were doing as well. The others backed into the cave.

"Be careful, guys. Catch up as soon as you got it to crash."

Yellwin shouted. Gris gave her a thumb up.

"Don't worry, we will survive."

We all aimed at the ship and focused. It flew at a low altitude again. But it still was vulnerable. It shot a whole arsenal of rockets towards us. We did our job to protect Eda. The missiles got shot and exploded, one by one.

Not a single rocket came even close. Eda stiffened and closed her eyes. She threw the feather ball high up in the air. She waited for the right moment to move, then she walked forward and spun her racket many times around herself, I guess to build up momentum. She made one turn and hit the feather ball with full force. The metallic sound echoes through the scenery. The feather ball rushed through the sky while whistling and making a whirling movement. I assume it hit the airship, because all we saw next was the airship losing control and flying through the smoke cloud caused by its rockets.

It was gliding through the air, its altitude decreased insanely fast. It was about to hit the mountains cliff above us, just as planned. We hurried up and bolted inside the cave. We ran as fast as possible through the darkness. It surely was a cave which was built by man, it just led straight down. Nature would never create something that linear. We heard that the airship impacted with the cliff. The cave got lit up because of the explosion. They had to be transporting something similar to dust apparently.

The fire ball rushed through the cave, and now I felt that we were in deep trouble. There was no trace of the others. They vanished, and the worst part was that the cave ended right where we stood. I looked around panicked.

"What? Where are the others?"

Eda shouted out hysterically.

"We are trapped guys! Look, the fire comes closer!"

Thistle said and pointed up. She was right, the fire came towards us slowly and it was like a flow of lava. We all backed into one corner. There was no way out. We were trapped like rats. Thoughts shot through my mind. We were about to be cooked alive. The fire would strip us from our lives. That had to be the worst way to perish. We were about to be burned alive. It was over, our great careers as huntsmen was screwed because of ourselves. It became way hotter in the small cave, and I just closed my eyes.

This had to be it then, whether we liked it or not. We were all so distracted, that no one of us noticed the wall behind us slide open. And we all were too frozen to feel that we were dragged inside a huge room. We fell on the ground behind us, and the heavy metal door closed again. It had to be heavy; there was a huge metal frame around it after all. No. The whole wall was a whole piece of steel in fact. My eyes were zipping around, trying to figure out what just happened. I met eye contact with the students who had pulled us inside. Doctor Greystep stood above me, mustering us all concisely, probably checking if we were okay.

We stood up. Well, Gris and Thistle did anyways. My eyes rolled down to noticed that Eda was lying on top of me. She lifted her head up, and I saw her confused look. She looked dizzy, but she soon noticed our weird position as well. We quickly got off each other. Eda knelt and rubbed her head.

"Is everything alright, students?"

Greystep asked careful. He supported his weight on his walking cane, a bit leaning down to us.

"Yes, I think so. Eda, are you okay?"

I asked. I knelt next to Eda. She stared at me, apparently regaining her senses now.

"I think so. Wow. I must've passed out for a second.

I never was so frightened in my life."

"Well, at least he caught your fall, Miss Eisengrau. I hope no one got injured to badly. Are you okay, Mr. Tangery?"

"Yes. Ignoring the fact that I nearly had a heart attack, I feel perfect."

I said, while I stood up and helped my training partner up as well. I had to cool down for a second and to catch my breath. I looked around. The room was huge, but probably from an ancient time. The walls were sculpted into the stone. The room was shaped circular, and there was a huge elevated platform in the middle of it. There were a lot of chests placed around, and many items were stacked around those. I walked up, followed by Eda. Pale and Ivory joined us.

"Hey, I'm glad ya made it, Dark. Curl, you feel good too?"

"Miraculously I do. I am dizzy. That was way too much adrenaline for my taste."

"Yeah, it was confusing to figure it out.

You were supposed to find a hidden lever on the wall. It was disguised as a torch."

How original I thought. If I had to write an adventure typed book, then that would be my choice, too.

"Well, we were in a hurry; we could never have made it."

We exchanged looks, giggled, and walked up to the treasures. At first look it seemed like a wild arrangement of items, but in reality, they were all similar in one way. They were depictions of different ranks and kinds of people. I took a closer look. Standing on the lowest possible point were pawns, traders, fishers and the lower ranks of society. These figures were made of very low quality wood and clay.

Above them were smiths, timber men, construction workers, couturiers, and people who take care of building and constructing things, made out of better wood and sculpted stone. I looked up a little bit and noticed the next shelf was full of architects, managers, soldiers, artists, and all sorts of those people, built out of metals and white stone.

And of course, above every figurine, made out of gold, silver and crystal, there were kings, queens, autocrats. Items like chains, rings, embroidery, various everyday things like keys, small knifes, and even gems and stones with engravings lay in between the figures. Everything had to do with different ranks and ideals. I began to get an idea what his was about, but I still asked Doctor Greystep.

"What do we have to do, Doctor?"

"Tell me what you see. All of you."

Eda inspected the shelves closely. She replied first.

"I see figures, various belongings and items, and they all are, how do I describe it, made out of the material which the positions are worth. At least in their perspectives."

Pale nodded.

"Yeah, those things are worth their choosing, isn't it?"

Ivory added something interesting.

"I think we each have to take one or more things of the items displayed here.

Maybe to test which position we think we're worthy enough for?"

"You're nearly correct, Miss Zogeiro. You shall pick one you find the most important. There is no wrong or right answer, you alone can judge your choice."

I had an idea in no time. Greystep continued.

"Maybe it seems complex, but honestly, you just have to think about it.

What does society need to work?"

My look went over to our companions. They all had picked their choice by now. Lycide held an architect figurine in her hand. Yellwins choice was an amulet which looked similar like the other items of the merchant. Thistle flipped the soldiers' coin in the air. Gris however, he had the pawns key to his shed strapped to his belt. I joined my friends at the shelves. I saw that Eda had taken the Queens ring.

Ivory chose the flower embroidery of the artist. I was surprised by Pales' choice. He took the couriers' scroll. It was a little chain with a metallic scroll attached to it. I stepped closer and thought. What does society need? Freedom, but rules at the same time. It needed leadership, but at the same time, it was important that there were many opinions. People needed to work and have wealth.

I stretched out my hand and took the stone figure of the smith. Because nothing could be done without crafting all the things that were required for all that. The pitchfork for the pawn, the instruments for the architect, the brushes for the artist, the soldiers' weapons, the managers' pencils, needles for the couturiers, the bag for the courier.

And one thing was important as well.

The figure which Doctor Greystep had sculpted on his walking canes grip.

The one who had to take all the different roles and had to lead all that to victory.

The smith had to make the scepter for the king.


	6. Chapter 6 - Classy

_**Chapter 6 - Classy**_

The main hall was filled with all the students of Haven academy. Everyone was there, even the ones who were not new to the academy. The students who already had finished the quest. The teachers stood in front of the elevated platform.

Headmaster Lionheart stood on it, together with our friends Lycide, Thistle, Yellwin and Gris. I just then noticed that he was indeed a Faunas, so the name Lionheart had a literal meaning. Our friends smiled and were obviously proud of themselves, just as everyone else.

Personally, I couldn't stop smiling since we finished our quest.

We all took the item we chose with us. I held the stone figure of the smith in my hand. As soon as I would go onto the stage, I'd place the figure I my pocket. The huge hologram on the wall lit up again. It was time to call out the teams which we formed when the quest was active.

The pictures and emblems of our friends appeared and placed themselves in an order.

Our Headmaster continued his speech. One could easily notice that he was glad we made it. It may seem a bit harsh, sending fresh students with nothing that their experience in fight school and their own skills into a thick forest with difficult terrain and unknown dangers. Although the fight school which every student had to attend before did not teach many subjects we had to experience later on.

But it worked out well; at least that was what Greystep said on our way back.

"It is an honor for me to announce that Lycide Flairtone, Yellwin Pyre, Gris Hamelinn and Thistle Turika have fought well, facing difficult tasks on their way, and they mastered all. Hereby I declare those four students now Huntsmen and Huntresses, and they will act and fight as a team from this day on, until their graduation has taken place. They will be known as team _LYGT_ , and the leader of their team will be Lycide Flairtone, who gave orders well and showed a great interest in leading. I wish you good luck in the future. You now may leave the stage."

Applause replaced the silence and livened the attendants up. Now it was our time to shine. We walked up the stairs, giving team LYGT, pronounced light, a wink. They couldn't stop smiling. We positioned ourselves on the stage. Lionheart nodded and began to talk to us.

"Darkin Tangery, Eda Eisengrau, Ivory Zogeiro and Pale Luken. You came from all kinds of different origins, but you fought together and achieved tasks which required strength, teamwork and slyness. You have used various ways to achieve our goals, and the way you used to defend yourselves from a dangerous airship was interesting indeed. I have to admit, I have never seen something like that before.

Hereby I declare you Huntsmen and Huntresses. You shall protect the people of Remnant from all its threats. From now on you will be known as team _DEIP_. Darkin Tangery. I name you as the leader of this team, because of your actions and your salient plans. I wish you best of luck for your future. You now may leave the stage."

Team DEIP, pronounced deep. We all were filled with joy and pride. This had to be celebrated. But now wasn't the time for that. Because we were about to meet the other new students. The next four students walked up the stairs next to us.

Three girls and one boy. One of the girls carried a very colorful short sword, the other a long distance sniper rifle. The third girl had an interesting assortment of knifes attached to her two belts. The boy carried something that looked like a sword, but it wasn't. It seemed like that weapon could transform into something way different. I was interested by that. I would surely meet them personally soon. They placed themselves in front of headmaster Lionheart as well.

"It is now time for _Baared Narju_ , _Rogey Flame_ , _Nigrin Yaku_ and _Numa Taika Azuline_. You prove yourselves just as good as the others. But you did something special. You were the first ones to make it to the goal.

This means all of you have thought quickly and were precise while fighting whatever stood in your path. Baared Narju, you have brought every one of your companions to safety, and you also prove to be authoritative of the position as the leader of team _BRNN_. I wish the best of luck to you all; I know that you will protect the people of Remnant just as good as you did in the quest. I wish you best of luck for your future."

The wind was interestingly fast on that day. The clouds above me seemed to fly as fast as bullets, maybe even faster. Yeah, clouds were way faster than bullets. I looked at the ground and moved my head around a bit.

I kept staring at the sky for the past minutes. The bench next to the landing platform was actually very comfortable. I reached into my pocket for my cigarette box. I finally got one out without having to take out the whole box.

"Hey, you're up here. I've been looking for you."

I lit up my cigarette and looked over to my right. Eda came towards me.

"Mind me?"

"No, not at all. Please, join me."

I took a deep breath from my cigarette and looked at the sky again. I still held the statue I had taken from the quest in my hand. Eda sat down next to me and looked around.

"What are you doing all alone up here?"

"Honestly, I am doing absolutely nothing. I'm just enjoying the silence. It's cool to do that sometimes."

Eda smiled and folded her hands. She looked at my hand, and at the statue I held in it.

"Why did you choose the smith?"

Eda asked me. My humble self had been waiting for that question to come up actually. I sat up straight. I felt like what I chose, it would matter in the end. I had a feeling which I couldn't describe. It felt like I had chosen my destiny.

"A smith builds all the things that society needs. He makes the final path for it. I mean, society could not work with one of all those factors missing. But the smith is one of the most important I think. After all, he is the one who forges the scepter for the king in the first place."

"Probably. But without the trader, there would be no steel for that. Or gold."

Eda was right. I nodded.

"You're right. And that's exactly what they wanted from us. To understand that no matter what we chose, it would be right. These individuals are all seeking for a common goal. I'd love to know, why did you choose the queen?"

She breathed out. She already had an answer to that.

"I thought that there needs to be a second opinion, someone who sees the bigger picture. A king should always have someone who tells him what his plans look from the outside. Imagine you are the king. You work out your very own plans, and they can even be brilliant, but you don't see your own mistakes at first. Then I come around the corner and see the mistakes instantly, as little as they might be."

"You have a good point there.

It really is important to see a picture from all sides first."

I replied. I noticed that someone else came up to us. I turned my head around and saw the leader of team BRNN. He was as tall as me, with a little bit darker skin and black, short hair. He wore a dark orange jacket above his bang orange shirt and bright grey trousers. He had a harness with armor strapped around his torso. His sword hung on his back. I lowered my cigarette.

"Oh, excuse me, I didn't expect you. Baared Narju, am I right?"

The boy came closer and made a slight bow.

"Yes. You can call me Baared. It is an honor to meet you. Darkin Tangery, wasn't it?"

I stood up and nodded.

"You are right as well. Call me Darkin. It's a pleasure to meet you.

You are the first ones who made it, huh?"

I asked friendly. He smiled lightly, while his orange eyes looked at me.

"Exactly. But I call it luck. We had to fight of course, but the monsters were mostly concentrating on you guys, I assume."

"And why would they?"

I asked. But at the same time I had an idea.

"Maybe you had a few differences with someone who you met?"

Eda stepped in.

"From what I have heard, I would say that is correct.

But that is already under control, isn't it, boss?"

She prevented any more questions with that statement. _Thank you_ I thought.

Baared looked at her and understood her point. He made a light bow into her direction as well.

"I think we haven't met yet, Eda Eisengrau, isn't it? The badminton champion?"

Eda smiled self conscious. She dropped a courtesy, which honestly didn't look bad at all. It fitted to her.

"Correct. Baared Narju. It's nice to meet you."

He surely seemed like a nice guy. I couldn't see a single reason why I would ever want to have nothing to do with him. Something about him was relaxing; maybe it was his clothing, which perfectly fit in with his whole appearance.

"I have heard quite a lot about you, Miss Eisengrau. It is said that no one could beat you in a fair game."

Eda giggled uncomfortable and laid her hand on her chest.

"To be honest, there are enough people out there who can put up a good match. I am certainly not _the_ best one in Remnant."

I had to ask Baared one question. I tried to be as outgoing as I could.

"Hey, what kind of weapon do you use? It surely looks interesting."

He took his sword and showed it to us. He pushed a tiny lever next to the grip. The sword unfolded to its original size. It wasn't that long, but it was thick.

And it had a very exotic feature.

"This is _Narani_. It is my weapon. It seems to be a simple sword when looking at it the first time. But it has a unique ability. It is a crossbow at the same time."

He pulled at the grip, and the blade instantly split up and clapped aside. A string span between the two arms as they unfolded. He took out a bolt out of the holster which hung on his back and showed us.

"Here, these bolts are shot with my beauty, and they are extremely accurate."

He threw it over to me. I caught it and inspected it closer. It just looked like a normal dart to me. However, it was built in a similar way as the feather balls from Eda. I passed it back to Baared and jokingly asked.

"So, how many darts do you have with you? Maybe you'd pass some tips over to my friend here; she had a little issue with her ammunition."

I earned a hit on my arm from her. I smiled and sat back down on the bench. I was about to ask Baared to join us, but he sat down on one of the huge stones in front of us. It's interesting to point out the way he sat there. He angled his foot and sat down, resting his weight on the back of it. He was able to jump up instantly and he'd be combat ready. He addressed Eda.

"You know, it does not matter how many bullets you have, what is important is how you use them. Take one to eliminate two targets, understand me?"

"Huh, that is an interesting idea. To be honest, I always thought the more bullets the better. Thank you. I'll try it next time."

We all got along with each other. That was interesting; I did not expect so much friendliness from literally everyone around here. Suddenly noises appeared which sounded like more students coming up to us. We looked to our left to see both our teams heading up to us. I saw Pale and Ivory talking to Baared's teammates.

"Her you are, Baared. Come on, we're going to be late to the first class."

Said the girl with the huge assortment of knifes. She was clothed in a peculiar way. It looked a lot like a short robe, but it appeared like she was wearing many layers of clothing. It turned out to be sewn like that. Her long and curly light brown hair jerked in the wind. Her eyes were a flashy and luscious blue.

"Oh, you're right. By the way, meet Darkin Tangery and Eda Eisengrau."

He looked at us. He pointed at the girl.

"This is Nigrin Yaku. She is our best melee warrior."

Nigrin made an irritated expression and bobbed her head.

"Well, I wouldn't call me the very best as you do,

but I know how to fight if you mean that."

She seemed to be lively. That was always a great gift. Paying attention to everything can be way easier that way. One of the other girls stepped next to her and rested her hand on Nigrin's shoulder. It was the girl with the bow. She was about my height, and I quickly noticed that she probably was a fan of sunshine and beach parties. She was lightly sun-tanned. She wore very interesting and colorful clothing. Her pelvis was covered under a bright red skirt, which was slightly longer than Eda's skirt. It had some sort of extension which ran up to her waist on her left side. It gave a clever opportunity to hide a quiver and some pouches under this contraption.

She chose to wear a dark vermilion top, without many accessories except for a piece of armor on her right arm. She had blonde hair and purple eyes. She smiled.

"What, are you making new friends?"

"I am. Why, don't you want to know who is amongst you while you're waiting for your graduation?"

Nigrin looked at us.

"This is Rogey. She is one of the best when it comes to bow and arrow."

Rogey Flame made a gesture which looked like shooting us and winked.

"Probably the best. What's up, team DEIP?

I heard you did pretty well against the Grimm."

"Yeah, you could say that."

Ivory replied and joined us together with Pale. I looked around and kindly asked the third girl. She was the one with the colorful sword. She wore a skintight outfit with a wide array of colors, with blue being the dominant color. Her battle skirt had a few incisions which allowed it to move around freely while fighting. She had short, light blue hair and light green eyes.

"So, we haven't met yet as well.

My name is Darkin Tangery, and this is Eda Eisengrau. What's your name?"

"Name's Numa Azuline. It's a pleasure to meet you guys."

I was shocked about the way I changed from a shy and weird boy to a rather confident weird boy. Huh, being a Huntsman trainee wasn't bad in the slightest way. I stood up, killed the cigarette and addressed everybody.

"So, I assume that we have more than enough time to get each other better to know. But now I think we should hurry up and get to class, am I right?"

And as soon as I said that, we sat in the classroom. We wore our black uniforms which we received earlier. They did fit my style actually. I looked around once more to have a better focus. The classrooms had an interesting architecture. From the outside it seemed like a normal square room, but we actually sat in a circular order. Two rows of seats and tables, claiming two thirds of the rooms. Up to twenty four students could be educated in there.

I chose to sit with my team of course, Pale and Eda in front and Ivory and I having a seat behind them. We could talk though; there wasn't a great distance between us. Our teacher was a middle aged man with blond hair and a goatee.

 _Doctor Marigold_ was his name. He walked around in front of the huge chalk board with his arms crossed. The past few minutes he kept talking about our duties and rights.

"Huntsmen are gaining more and more respect with the time nowadays. It shouldn't surprise you that many people prefer you instead of the police. But with respect comes duty. Be nice, be respectful to the citizens, and most importantly, make sure your reputation is what the people expect.

Even if you still are students, all of you will become real Huntsmen eventually. Which simply means that you always have to keep in mind that you are not invincible."

He turned to us and pointed up to the chalk board. There was some sort of scale written on it. Three years of our training were shortly described there.

"In the first year which has just begun, your training will focus especially on training you in combat and perception. You will study the creatures of Grimm as good as possible, which by the way, will be my part as well.

In about two months you will get the permission to sign up for missions within the kingdoms walls, and keeping your abilities and experience in mind, you will get greater tasks, sometimes outside.

The second semester is dedicated to exercises such as judging, duties and rights, and making your own conscious decisions. Also, a fact to throw in at this point. The second semester will include the _Vytal Festival Tournament_ , this time taking place in Vacuo. Is there anyone here who does not know about it?"

A few students raised their hands. Not many. Doctor Marigold nodded.

"Good. I will explain it to you. The Vytal Festival serves as a reminder of peace between all kingdoms and cultures, more or less initiated to celebrate the Great War's end and to remind everyone in remnant to constantly live in peace.

Many festivities take place every two years, including a combat tournament. While the host kingdom changes every time, it opens up its borders to let in visitors from all out of Remnant. Interestingly enough, out of all twenty times it had taken place, our very own Kingdom of Mistral had only won the combat tournament three times. So don't be surprised if some teachers push you to train months before it takes place."

Pale was rocking on his chair; he came closer to Ivory's table and supported himself on its edge.

"So that's why they let you in, Dark. They need good warriors."

He smiled cheeky. That one wasn't bad qctually.

"Oh, of course, that is the real reason why I'm here.

Because you're not as good as I am."

He stretched out his fist while smiling even cheekier than before. We bumped fists and returned to pay attention to the class.

"So, by reaching the third and final year of your training, you will indirectly be Huntsmen already. Everything you will learn then will include locating Grimm hotspots and how to destroy those. You will help villages and people all across Remnant with all sorts of things, and all of your actions will mostly be freely chosen and executed, unless you have authorities tell you otherwise."

He turned around swiftly. He looked around the class and pointed at Lycide.

"Miss Flairtone. Would you mind telling us why you wanted to become a Huntress?"

Lycide got caught off guard. She seemed sunken in thoughts. She came back to the real world and thought about her answer for a second.

"I want to become a Huntress to save lives. I have heard quite a lot stories about all the dangers in the world. And it has a little bit to do with my family, but that is accessory."

"Thank you, Miss Flairtone. Now, what does…?"

He looked around and chose someone else.

"Yes, Mr. Hamelinn. What do you think, why are you here?"

Gris relaxed a bit more in his chair, letting one arm hang from the backrest. He made a circular movement with his hand.

"Honestly, I always had a talent in fighting. Why would I sit inside all day, rather than helping the people around me who can't defend themselves? I have the spirit and skill to help, so I'm just doing it."

Doctor Marigold nodded slowly. He probably understood his point. I did too, but I couldn't shake the feeling that he sounded a little bragging. He didn't mean it; at least I was sure of that. I saw Doctor Marigolds glimpse wandering to me. He addressed me.

"Mr. Tangery, what reason did you have to join our school? I heard quite a bit about you from Doctor Greystep."

I wasn't sure what to answer. I mean, I knew why I was there. I needed a fresh start in my life. There was no explicit reason. Sure, helping people in need sounded great.

And I was able to fight, which was a gift which not every person in Remnant enjoyed. I was fast and agile. My weapon was designed to allow an attack at high speed. It was light but useful. Thin and beauteous. Strong and reliable. I thought about my answer, and then I got one.

"My past was full of lies and criminality; and although I never participated in all of that, I want to indemnify everything I can. And helping to protect humanity from all the trouble out there seems like the best thing I can do."

Doctor Marigold smiled proudly. He turned around, crossing his arms in front of his chest.

"And what does every one of you notice while listening to the ideals of the others?

All of you come from the most different places and ancestries. That doesn't matter that badly though. That's because every one of you has the very same goal.

You are here to protect, to spend hope, to give joy to every citizen in Remnant."

He formed a fist with his hand and held it higher up.

"Your past is no reason for you to think that you are special or less worthy.

You can come from Vacuo, Mistral, Atlas or Vale. You can come from every continent. You can be human or a Faunus. Male or female. It simply does not matter.

And that is something every one of you has to understand. Huntsmen and Huntresses have to hold together as one, which is the only way we all survive."

I grasped what was going on. I was falling. The words of Doctor Marigold echoed through my head and gave me the strength to focus on my surroundings. It really did not matter who I was before. Now I was a Huntsman. Well, more or less. I quickly let my eyes wander around. I tried to get a clue why I was falling. My leg began to hurt suddenly. Apparently Gris managed to land a hit against my lower leg.

He had used his right leg to kick while we were crossing our weapons. That was not a forbidden move as Doctor Mashiro had said earlier. He wanted everyone to play by the rules while the fight classes were on.

That meant we shall not bite, to punch unless that was your fighting style, we had to be careful not to injure someone too bad and so on. Gris and I were the first ones to get chosen to battle each other.

I focused and did the only thing I was able to do in this situation.

Gris was busy with balancing himself. He tried to get the higher ground as I fell. I saw the sand of the training grounds come closer. My arm stretched out automatically. Both of my legs angled and the momentum caused me to flip over. Gris stared at me as I got onto my feet again. He did not expect me to catch my fall and to be ready to attack again. He lifted his pike up and stiffened his stance.

I used the moment of surprise that just opened up a path for me. I performed a quick dash at him. I turned my body sideways to avoid his weapon. I thrust my sword at him. I drew my knife at the same time and positioned it behind his pike. I pulled with force at my knife and Gris stumbled forward.

But instead of swinging my sword at him, I positioned my left leg to let him trip over it. And it worked. He let go of his weapon and crashed onto the ground with a thumb. I stood there; trembling for this move was performed by my mind.

I did not do anything in fact. I have always had a quick perception in dangerous situations. Although, it was a reason for many mistakes I made, too.

Doctor Mashiro clapped his hands twice.

"Excellent work. Both of you fought with great skill."

He turned around to the others. They all stood around the training field and watched us closely. I stepped to Gris and helped him up again.

"That was an excellent fight, my friend."

He rolled his eyes.

"Yeah. You put up a nice challenge. Next time I'll get you."

I smiled and shrugged.

"We'll see."

We both walked back to the others. Mashiro chose someone else to test their ability in combat.

"Miss Eisengrau, what about you? Are you ready?"

She stiffened and nodded confidently.

"Yes. I'd love to."

"Great. So, is there anyone who wants to challenge her?"

Mashiro asked loudly. Someone raised his hand. It was none other than the bully we met on the first day of our arrival.

"Yes. _Carmine_ , go on."

He had an expression of triumph on his face. I rolled my eyes and closely watched as both stepped onto the sand. I heard them talking.

"Let's see what you got. I still can't believe that you made it out of that forest."

Eda tried to not look pissed. She gave a confident wink.

"Really. You don't say."

"No offense, but your little weapon looks like it could break in two after a good hit. We should try that out."

She rolled her eyes. Now she was not in the mood to be insulted. But she kept cool, completely ignoring Carmine.

"Do as you wish. Be careful though, it can hurt getting hit by such an elegant and thin weapon."

She stretched out her right arm, holding the racket downwards. She stiffened her legs and her shoulder. Her eyes fixed on Carmine's weapon. It was a Macuahuitl, a huge steel plank. Its sides were embedded with many prismatic blades made out of obsidian. The edges seemed to be far sharper than razor blades.

It had engravings all over it. She stared at this interesting weapon and obviously found a weak spot, because she lifted her weapon up and challenged him to begin.

Of course, as ignorant as he seemed to be, he stormed forwards. Eda crouched just a little bit. She was becoming ready to jump aside as soon as he reached her. Carmine reached back and swung the weapon at Eda.

She jumped aside, leaving the sand below her to his weapon which tore the sand apart. Eda spun and clashed her racket against Carmine's armor. He didn't even notice it. He lifted his weapon up and swung it at her sideways. Eda cowered and eluded the attack just by an inch. She stood up and kicked Carmine against his arm. Normally this would have caused the opponent to let go of his weapon.

But he was way too strong for that to work. He towered up in front of her and thrust his weapon towards my teammate. She, of course, saw that one coming. She made a back flip to get away from him. She landed and crouched, pushing the sand backwards like a wave, holding her racket upwards this time. She let it transform, and the blades shot out at the top of the rackets head.

She jumped with full force at her opponent and threw a huge combination of thrusts, swings and all kinds of different attacks at him. She spun around two times and with each consecutive hit she managed to push the bully further and further towards the white line of the training ground. She suddenly stopped attacking him; instead she faked to thrust her weapon at him and backed away.

Carmine stumbled backwards once more and nearly tripped. He got balanced again and glanced at her. It was obvious that this guy had turned angry _already_. He turned his weapon sideways and ran at her. Eda lifted her weapon up, positioned herself right and held the racket with one arm. She shot a few high caliber bullets at him which got blocked by his massive weapon.

Eda widened her eyes as she saw what he did. He thrust his strong leg into the ground, causing a huge cloud of sand to fly right at my teammate. She protectively held up her left arm to cover her face. And Carmine used this cowardly attack to hit Eda with his shoulder. Eda got thrown back by the impact, and she lost grip of her racket. It whirled through the air and got stuck in the sand.

She was now unarmed and probably had no other choice than surrendering. She was still startled and did not see Carmine's final blow coming. He stopped walking and hit her with the hilt of his heavy weapon, right into her face. She closed her eyes caused by the caustic pain and lost balance. She got flung to the ground and kept lying. Her Aura lightened up in shiny silver.

The hit was very hard, maybe a little too overpowered for a training match.

She was frightened and stared at Carmine. He now stood above her and held his weapon high into the air. The plank was embedded with blades, and at the front, which was facing her, was a thick spike. Carmine obviously did not know what he was doing. I took a step forward. I heard how other students shouted at him, he must not continue his attack. It could seriously injure her, now that her aura was depleted. I feared for my teammate, there was no way she could defend herself now.

She was still startled by the quick occurrences. I was about to use my Semblance; at least to distract him. Carmine smiled like a mad maniac. A shot rang through the training grounds. Carmines weapon got flung out of his hold. He looked at Doctor Mashiro who stared at them with his arm stretched out. I saw that he was wearing his weaponry under his uniform.

A tiny barrel stuck out of his sleeve. He shouted at Carmine in a steady voice.

"Young man, it is time to stop that now. Back away from your opponent this instant!"

He reluctantly stepped away from his opponent. I breathed out in relief and hurried to Eda just as the others did. Some walked towards Carmine to prevent any other kinds of provocations. I knelt and checked if my friend was alright. Eda's eyes were glassy. She slowly got herself to sit up with my help. Thistle stepped next to us and looked at the others standing between both fighters. I saw Nigrin rushing to us as well.

"Wow, did you see that? What a rude idiot."

"Eda, are you okay?"

Ivory asked while she came to us with the weapon of our teammate in her hand.

"Yes, I am. What a cowardly asshole!"

She said with the most pissed voice I have ever heard. She slowly began to stand up, while Pale and I supported her. I shot a glimpse at Carmine. He was busy with trying to provocateur the other students around him, even insulting his own teammates in a way I did not understand. His teammates were nothing like him at all.

His teammates were _Racko Vadelma_ , a tall but mostly thin boy. His mid long, violet red hair always hung to the left side and had a few piercings all around in his face. He had pale skin, but he was stronger than he looked.

Together with _Akupacca Tarto_ he tried to hold Carmine back. Akupacca, who most of the time got called Aku, was a handsome and muscular young man wearing nothing else but a leather vest, dark green trousers and a backpack, showing off his muscles. He had blue eyes and very short, lime green hair.

He was looking at the fourth member of _Team CRAL,_ standing for coral, _Laurel Kona Tim_. He was busy with trying to calm down the other students. He was tall and wide, had a dark tan and Yellow eyes. He had messy grey hair and wore some sort of fine clothing which was elegant but also functional.

Carmine' teammates were nothing like him, and to be honest, I had no idea how he became the leader of such a team. Doctor Mashiro stepped in between the brawl, holding his hands high up in the air.

"Now, what are you doing here? Did I miss anything? I thought I was teaching Huntsmen and Huntresses here, not punks. Everybody, resume to the spectators ranks immediately. This is not acceptable."

"With all due respect, Doctor, but his behavior was not acceptable."

Gris threw in. Mashiro nodded.

"I know, that was a very irrational decision. We are not on the battlefield, and neither is any student on this school your enemy. Treat them with respect, then there will not be any misunderstanding, do you understand that, Mr. _Bull_?"

Carmine looked at Doctor Mashiro just as if he was his mother lecturing him.

"Yes, I am very sorry, Doctor. This won't happen again."

He said unemotionally, without even looking at Eda. He faked an apology which even Mashiro didn't buy.

"I got carried away, I'm sorry."

If I was anywhere near him, I would have slapped him for that kind of behavior. Oh dear, I felt the need to really pay him back for nearly injuring my teammate in a lethal way. Doctor Mashiro made a gesture that told us all to go back to the spectator ranks. We had helped Eda up by now, and she crossed her arms and looked at the ground. Ivory handed her the racket, and she thankfully nodded.

"Thanks a million, guys."

"Don't ya worry; his arm will fall off if that happens once more."

Pale solaced her while staring at Carmine. He was looking at us. I narrowed my eyes and gave him a very intense stare. He looked away and joined the other spectators. We joined team BRNN and team LYGT at the side of one of the buildings, next to a little pond with a tiny stone waterfall.

Eda leant herself against the wall of the building and stomped her left foot against the stone fundament.

"Great."

She hissed.

"This guy is a complete maniac. Unbelievable!"

"Calm down, Eda."

Baared spoke in a calm voice. He was more of a watcher than someone who took action. He was calculating things; that was his real strength.

"Mashiro will have him on a leash. He won't let this happen again."

"And neither will I. Next time he can fight me, we will see who gets the bruises. I need to care about my team as a leader. And my friends stand above all, of course."

"Just don't lose the reality, sweetheart."

Numa replied to my statement. She wasn't all excited about my reaction.

"He did this dumb thing once. It wouldn't justify your actions if you started a brawl with him now."

"I didn't mean to start a brawl. I said I wanted to teach him a lesson. Next time I will volunteer to take on him."

Gris pointed at Carmine with his thumb.

"And let me guess, you already have an idea how to teach him?"

I nodded slowly.

"Yes, there was a pattern in his attacks. He always used tons of strength on a simple attack which didn't even land a hit. He wastes his energy, and I seriously doubt that he will be able to survive a long time out there, if he doesn't change that."

I pointed at my biceps.

"What would happen if he ran out of strength in a short time?

I might be a little too rash, but I am quick and agile. Eluding his heavy attacks which are normally meant for collapsing buildings;

that would be something I'd do for breakfast."

"You are brave, Darkin Tangery."

Lycide said nonchalant. I noticed she was not sure if I was certain about what I just said. "I have to give you that."

We had a lot of classes on that day. But it was more like a first overall insight into the lessons than actually learning stuff.

We spoke about our future, sometimes our past, and a lot of times we were asked what we thought. I quickly noticed a huge difference to the normal school, or even the fight school. Because both of these had some sort of hierarchy.

The teachers came first, then the students. At least it was like that on Sanus, hell of I know if it was different in the other kingdoms.

But in Haven, it was different. It seemed like the students, in that case, every one of us, were the ones who stood above all. We got treated like grownups, although not everybody was eighteen or older, like me and the rest of my team for example. I knew for a fact that Lycide was about to turn eighteen years old in a few months, still in the first semester. Lycide seemed to be older than me as well.

Gris on the other hand, I wouldn't be surprised if he told me that he was even younger than me. Nigrin from team BRNN, she was nineteen years old. But even though not all of us were adults at that moment, we still had skill, and we were ready.

At least everyone except for Carmine Bull. He still had to learn a lot about leaving pride where it belongs, and how to properly fight his fellow students, without killing them. Or he just had such a huge ego which didn't allow him to give in when it was time for that.

Either way, such a behavior was not acceptable. My shoulders got pushed lightly by someone. I turned my head around and saw Pale. He looked at me.

"Hey, Dark, you alright?"

I shook my head. Reality came to me again. We were in our own bedroom. We stood there and looked around in this completely empty room and thought about solutions to this emptiness. Well, the others did. I was thinking about the other students and the one asshole in our ranks.

"Yes. I just got carried away."

Ivory smiled sarcastically with a huge grin on her face.

"I guess one could say you were _DEIP_ in thought. Am I right?"

She looked around and shrugged. We all looked at her, but I could not stifle a short giggle.

"No takers then. Alright."

"Calm down, Ivory."

I said chuckling.

"It wasn't that bad."

Eda rolled her eyes and walked around.

"This room needs some style, seriously."

Our bedroom was big enough for all of us; four beds were neatly placed against one wall. There were two square windows in between the beds, a relatively big closet stood in the corner, a crate and a bookshelf were placed opposite of the beds, and a desk with two chairs stood left from our beds. The ceiling was painted in a matching white; the walls were constructed with the same dark wood which the whole school was built with. Some blue tiles decorated the coherent beige floor.

"There needs to be a carpet soon, the floor does not fit in at all."

Ivory said, this time leaving the sarcasm behind. They were right. The room looked boring without something which made it unique.

Eda thought, crossing her arms and pointing at the beds.

"We need to change the array of the beds. They are standing way too similar, for my taste at least."

We all looked at our friend. And in the second we heard that we knew what needed to be changed. We arranged nearly the whole room in a completely varied way.

Eda's bed stood in the left corner from the windows; mine stood next to the bookshelf on the right side. Pale's bed stood on the opposite side of mine, while Ivory put her bed next to Eda. I sat down on mine and stared at the floor.

"So, what do we do now? Pale, when is our next class?"

Pale threw another gum into his mouth.

"It's in about thirteen minutes, man. We got plenty of time if we bounce at four."

We all looked at the clock simultaneously. The two watch hands gave us the information we needed. We resumed relaxing again.

"You know what, I just asked myself how pretty much delirious Captain Verden must have been; when he heard that a few kids screwed over one of his ships."

My expression became a little bit more serious. Eda had a question which was totally justified, given that she almost died with us in that cave.

"Hey, by the way, would you mind telling us what went on there?

Who is this Verden exactly?"

I tried to remember the moment I first met this guy. Was it at the age of ten?

No, he was with us way back. Maybe at the age of four, but then I had one problem. I couldn't remember. When I was ten, there were more than enough memories. Also, all of those I tried so badly to forget now came up to the surface again. He was a smuggler, an outlaw, and he had a bunch of criminals working for him. And worst of all.

"He was a family friend."

I replied. My hand slid over my belt to the metal box which held my spare magazines. I held one of these up.

"For example, they took care of business such as weapons, ammunition, Dust and men. To be precise, they hired mercenaries. No task was too easy or too hard for them. They did everything my father told their captain to, and they executed every single one of his requests, no questions asked. But there was one slight mistake Verden made. And that was something he couldn't stop, because it had happened from the beginning. He was becoming friends with my father, and that made him a slave as well."

"And why exactly do they hate Huntsmen and Huntresses?"

Ivory wanted to know why we got attacked by them in the first place, and that was an interesting but easy question.

"That is because they are outlaws. They hate everyone who has something to do with authorities. It does not take a lot of deliberating to see what I mean with that."

Pale took off his sunglasses and folded the temples in. He rocked forward slowly.

"And what do ya think, Darkin, what were the doing?"

"Maybe they heard that we were there. A bunch of students would be an easy target if you ask me."

Ivory threw in an argument.

It could have been a valid answer to the question, that was if we had spoken about different people or everyday criminals. But I shook my head. That was not the case,

it didn't sound like Verden. He was no killer, though he had taken many lives already. First they would've never wasted their time to hunt down students; they were no killers after all. And second, they only killed when they really had to.

"A possible explanation is difficult to determine."

I replied thoughtful.

"But it could be that they were just minding their business, and when they noticed us running around at the mountain, they must have thought that we were spying on them, and that pushed the smugglers to attack us. And it explains this flood of burning dust which nearly killed us.

I'd bet that they were transporting huge amounts of dust, ready to take it away."

"So where did the other ship go to? There are not that many harbors around."

Eda put her hand on her left shoulder and moved her waist.

"Maybe they arrived here. It is possible to trace them if they did."

"And what shall happen then? Do you want to step in their way and try to talk them out of their doings? What do you expect to happen?"

I simply replied. She did not know these guys, and the things they were always willing to do. Eda laid her hand on her racket which was lying next to her.

"No, I will do my job."

Ivory and I exchanged looks. Pale nodded.

"I'll help ya out sweetheart. We'll do that and a bag of Fritos."

Had they both turned into policemen by now? They were talking about busting smugglers whose companions attacked us, and we killed those in the end. That was not a very good idea to say the least.

"Wait, our job is to protect the people of remnant, not to bust smugglers. Leave that to the military and the police."

"You just said it. We protect more students, Huntsmen and Huntresses, and most importantly, the civilians."

She had a good point there. If those guys were out there, still looking for people to fleece or to harm, then we had to do something about it. I sighed. It was the right choice after all. And that very same decision would bring us into a lot of trouble, and it would change all our lives forever. Of course, nobody could have ever known that.

"Fine. After the last class has ended, we will go out and look for clues.

What do you say?"

Everyone agreed. We were a team after all, so it was important to always stick together. And I had a slight feeling that Eda would do anything to pay those bastards back. Now there was one simple problem. We had to be careful, and I thought that we had to ask the teachers or the headmaster for permission to investigate. We walked through the hallways to our next class. And we just happened to walk into Doctor Greystep on our way. He was talking to Yellwin, and as he saw us, he nodded to her and she left, waving at us kindly. Greystep turned around and observed us as we steered directly at him.

Eda started the conversation.

"Hello, Doctor. We have a question, if it wouldn't bother you."

He shook his head and braced himself on his walking cane. He looked at us just if he had expected us to ask.

"I don't mind. What can I do for you?"

I took a small step forward and talked a little bit quieter.

"Do you remember when we were attacked by the smugglers airship,

shortly before the quest ended?"

Greystep nodded. Pale continued.

"We all came up with a plan to find them buddies."

Ivory added.

"And we would like to ask if we have the permission to investigate."

Greystep looked at us with a well deserved astonished look on his face.

"And why do you want to do that?"

He asked. I shrugged.

"We are Huntsmen; we are here to protect the innocent and citizens who can't defend themselves. Doesn't that include bad criminals as well?"

This situation was really awkward actually. We just walked towards a teacher out the door and asked him to allow us to hunt smugglers. To be honest, I wasn't sure if he would even let us go near those guys.

He thought for a second, then he presented us with his final answer.

"You do realize what can happen, am I right? The City of Mistral is a friendly place; there are not that many criminals here. But the harbor is a different place. Some airships which arrive here bring a lot of danger sometimes. But, I can't forbid you to go there. In fact, I never had to hear that."

He fingered his beard and continued.

"It would supersede the whole action if you told anyone else about your plans. However, be careful when you're on your own. I don't want to lose one of the most promising teams here.

Now go to your class, you need to learn a lot about the creatures of Grimm."

And with that he walked his way again. We gazed after him and then exchanged looks.

"Did he just allow us to move on?"

Ivory was just as puzzled as the rest of us.

"He obviously doesn't care."

Eda remarked. I did not think so.

"No, he does care. But he probably knows about our abilities. He wouldn't be a teacher if he didn't care about his students, isn't it?"

I looked at Eda as she rolled her eyes and turned around.

"You know exactly how I meant that, team leader Tangery."

I laughed. We continued our walk to the classroom.

"I am going to enjoy the next three years."


	7. Chapter 7 - Busted!

_**Chapter 7 - Busted!**_

"One of the biggest problems that come with Grimm is their ability to coordinate their

attacks. They were seen using something like tactics under special circumstances."

 _Doctor Shwiwap_ , a middle aged woman with brown and yellow hair, sat on her desk and looked at each one of us. She taught us all kinds of things about the most dangerous creatures in Remnant.

"There is no real explanation or even supporting evidence for a behavior as such, but yet

alone the thought that these creatures could learn by the time; that would be very

unsettling."

She took a deep breath and asked us all a theoretical question.

"So what if it was true? What would that mean for us all, for each and every living being in

Remnant?"

She looked around and angled her head with a cheeky smile.

"No one can think of any possible answer, but what we do know is that it could be bad.

There have always been Grimm, and there will always be Grimm, and we can say we're

happy with that. And that is because our situation could be so much worse."

I got an idea. I raised my hand and waited for the teacher to see me. Doctor Shwiwap pointed at me.

"Mr. Tangery, do you have a question?"

"Yes, I do actually."

I replied and told her what I had thought about.

"Back when we were in the forest, a fellow teammate and I encountered a species of Grimm

we have never seen before. They looked a lot like cheetahs, and as we had got rid of them,

they did not turn into dust right away."

The teacher looked interested. She stretched out her hand and gave me a signal to continue, and then she crossed her arms again.

"They sort of melted away, like ice cream. Their remains stuck to our weapons. These

remains eventually turned into dust after some time, but that was still a weird event. What do

you think about that, Doctor?"

She stood up for the first time. She walked around the desk and started to dig through a lot of paperwork in its top drawer.

"What you just said, Mr. Tangery, matches another report I have received from the local

police force. They saw these creatures, and they even got one. And…"

She took a bundle of sheets and held them up to let us all see it.

"They said exactly the same. Whatever happened there, it was not the first time that

something like that happened."

Some students exchanged looks. Someone to the left to me spoke up. It was Carmine.

"I think that is just another story to become infamous. This doesn't sound believable."

Before I could say something, Doctor Shwiwap interrupted him.

"And what do you think, Mr. Bull?"

She looked at him, while pushing her glasses up a notch. Carmine was obviously caught off guard by her question.

"Was it just an exaggeration, or did this happen twice? Tell us your thoughts.

That's what you all are here for. In my classes, everyone gets to express their thoughts."

"I think that he has absolutely no idea what really happened, maybe he wants to persecute

Darkin."

Ivory threw in cold. Doctor Shwiwap seemed to see what was going on, because she continued with her class before Carmine could say anything, who was now angered by Ivory's verbal countermeasure. Or, slap in the face as I would call it.

"However, this is another question we can't answer that simply. There is only one way to

truly identify the threat. And that would be to go out into the forest, find the hotspot where

all these events occurred, and to search for clues and evidence. That is what we will do next

class. Remember to ready up for that trip, and no school uniforms. You don't want to make

your clothing dirty in a real class, other than all that sitting around and listening, am I right?"

She crossed her arms and looked to her left. Numa got pointed out by our teacher.

"Miss Rhein, what exactly did you think when encountering your first Grimm?"

Numa did not need a lot of time to come up with an answer. She breathed in and replied with something completely unexpected.

"Do you want to hear the honest thought? It was, and I quote; oh, look at that cute thing, that

really can't be one of the fearsome Grimm."

"Explain this to us, would you, dear?"

Of course, everyone had no idea what she just meant with that. I wasn't scared easily, but Grimm brought even me to shudder. Literally everyone looked at Numa with an unbelieving glimpse. Was she just a badass or did she mean it in a completely different way? Numa seemed to notice our curiosity.

She quickly added a description of this very scene.

"Don't worry, it was a small Grimm. In fight school, we got an example of a living Grimm. Everyone got told that the Creatures of Grimm were huge, monstrous and absolutely deadly. The grownups made them look like giants with unbendable perilousness. And when we finally saw one of those things for the first time, I was somehow disappointed at the sight. It was big, yes, it had its normal size, but all the stories made them seem like they were way bigger, you get me, Doctor?"

Doctor Shwiwap smiled interested. She nodded quickly.

"Yes, I certainly do, Miss Rhein. I think everyone gets the idea. So, what was the point in showing the creature to all of you?"

Numa leant herself forwards.

"We were supposed to see the creature and to understand the threat. And let me tell you, they did a pretty good job right there."

Doctor Shwiwap nodded, deep in thoughts.

"What a great idea. The sooner you see the threat, the more time you have to prepare to face it. Which school did you attend, dear?"

Numa smiled proud.

"I am from Mistral, so I attended _Sanctum_."

Our teacher gave a consensual smile at Numa and nodded. She angled her head.

"That is indeed interesting. Yes, Sanctum is by far the best fight school in Mistral. Did anyone else in this class attend Sanctum?"

I saw some students who raised their hands and affirmed her question.

Among others, I saw Ivory, Baared, Lekti, Nigrin and Yellwin who raised their hands. Doctor Shwiwap nodded as she closely inspected everyone who came forward. She then asked.

"And who is not from Mistral or attended Sanctum? Name your schools, please."

Pale, Akupacca and Gris said that they were all attending _Parabell Academy._

Thistle did not attend a fight school directly, but she was protruding in some sort of a military boot camp in fighting Grimm, which eventually gave her the possibility to attend Haven Academy.

Lycide came from Atlas, and she proudly declared that she was one of the few students who got a chance to attend Haven by graduating _Hetriff University._

That was actually a very good title to get; Hetriff was a very difficult school after all.

They were classy and had high assumptions for new pupils. And although located in Atlas, they did not have the pay to win system.

Eda declared that she came from the Kingdom of Vale over here after she graduated _Signal Academy_ on the island _Patch_ , west from Vale _,_ just as Carmine did.

Here is an interesting fact by the way. Carmine was not stupid, he had a slightly better graduation than Eda, and still, even though he came from a way classier family, he called us bigwigs on our first day. I really tried to understand his motives behind that, but I just got even more puzzled than before.

Rogey and Racko attended _Ticatrium Academy_ in Vacuo.

I was the only one who was attending the little _Colognium University_ on Sanus. The university originated from an old castle which was used as a harbor in the Great War. It mainly defended the continent Sanus and the surrounding coastlines from Anima, or to make it easier, from the Kingdom of Mistral.

It was lesser known in Mistral, but it was more of an attraction than a real university. It sat on a cliff on the southeast of the continent, next to a huge and beautiful rock formation which decorated the already astonishing cliffs. It wasn't a rare occurrence that waves with a height of a building hit the cliffs. But it was not bad after all. I have learned a lot there, probably everything I knew by then.

Doctor Shwiwap found a great deal of interest in my story.

"So you attended Colognium University. I must say, out of all students I have ever had, you are the first one who graduated from there. Tell me, who exactly did you have as your prime teacher?"

I didn't need to think twice. I remembered my teacher very well. He was one of the few people who I was able to stand out in my childhood.

" _Mr. Zen Kurra_. He was my teacher. A fine man I might add."

"Oh, he surely is. I met him before; we attended the same Vytal festival in Atlas. He is a very good teacher, you are right."

She stood up and placed her hands behind her back.

"So, now we know each other even better, let's continue the class. We haven't left much time. What are the two most dangerous things about Grimm? No wrong answers."

Yellwin raised her hand after a few seconds.

"It is probably their strength in numbers. There are always Grimm attacks which include a lot of Grimm, which could mean that the somehow organize each concur with humans."

"That is certainly a real Problem with these creatures. You are right, Miss Pyre. And do you know why they attack in the first place?"

Yellwin shook her head and shrugged.

"I'm sorry, but I have to pass on that."

I thought intensely, sorting my memories to find a clue, but I couldn't recall anything. It was at that moment which Thistle used to reply.

"Back in the military camp which I attended, everyone taught us to hide our emotions as good as possible whenever we were practicing. I assume that has something to do with your question, Doctor?"

"Golden answer, Turika."

Doctor Shwiwap stood up quickly and walked straight to the chalk behind her desk. She began to crudely draw a Grimm Beowulf and two lines with bolts pointing away from the Creature. She wrote two words on top of the lines using blue crayon.

She wrote _emotions_ and _strength_ down.

"These words perfectly call out the most dangerous things about these creatures. First come emotions. Grimm are usually attracted by emotions such as disgust, hate, anger, sadness. The more there is, the more likely they are going o be attracted by it.

So watch out what you're doing when you wander out into the woods. And never forget, whenever you see a Grimm, you can almost be sure that it won't be alone."

She paused and added three lines, pointing towards the creature.

"What do you need to do to kill a Grimm? What are the three most important things you need to have? Hamelinn."

Gris casually leaned back in his seat.

"One needs skill in combat, to defend him and attack the threat."

Doctor Shwiwap nodded and wrote down _combat_.

"Yes, indeed. The most important aspect is something different though. Combat alone does not assure your victory."

She pointed at Racko. He guessed.

"It is important to have endurance and agility. Which would combine combat and skill."

Shwiwap wrote down _agility_. Yellwin explained what she thought.

"I am sure that you need perception."

Doctor Shwiwap nodded hastily.

"Define that, dear."

Yellwin bit on her lip and thought of a good reply.

"It is mandatory to see what the creature is doing and in which position you are. If I am standing in between trees, then I have to remember that I can't use the whole space around me. I might hit a tree, or the Grimm could outflank me."

Our teacher gave her a thumb up and wrote down _perception_.

"You are right. Your perception is a very important aspect in fighting. You simply need to know your surroundings to get a better picture of what you can do and what can be dangerous for you and others."

She looked at the clock which hung on the wall next to the huge chalk board. She addressed every one of us.

"Please write down all the aspects we just have talked about. I want you to think about all those aspects. Tomorrow we will talk about different ways to defeat Grimm, and you can already think about that as well. We see us tomorrow. Have a good day."

I held my sword up to the light. I finished polishing the blade with something I received from the weapons technician in Haven. The blade shined in a beautiful grey and silver combination; I watched closely as it was mirroring the bright lamp in our room.

To say that I liked my weapon was not true in the slightest way. I loved it, I clung to it. Destiny's Sun was my one and only true beauty at that point. Pale remarked.

"Ya know, I can't work with stiff weapons. I need the constant movement. But ya got a really nice one, man."

"Thanks."

I replied.

"It is my beauty."

"Same with me and Burgund."

He replied and continued preparing his Yo-Yo. I pulled off some easy movement with my beloved weapon. The door opened behind me, and Pale and I saw Eda carrying a huge metal box into our bedroom. I continued swinging my sword back and forth while asking.

"Do you need help?"

Eda kindly shook her head while putting the box on the ground.

"No thanks, it looks heavier than it actually is. But what's inside is the real deal."

With two clicks the chest opened and revealed a lot of the explosive feather balls, specially built for her. She took a yellow one out.

"This is the future, my friends. I got them fresh from Vale."

"And how many are in there?"

I asked and slid my sword into the scabbard. A quiet click assured me that the weapon sat tightly inside it. Eda shrugged.

"I have ordered only fifty two for the beginning. Should be enough, don't you think? "

"It probably is."

I replied and took a look at the shipment. There were four rows of feather balls, each one sitting in some sort of plastic framework. There were variants of red, yellow, blue, orange, purple and white dust, and I also saw a few grenades filled with a mixture of black and purple.

Eda smiled as she inspected the shipment and took out a bunch of different versions. She started to put them all in her belt.

Sixteen grenades fitted in there, and four on various different places on her body. The first two were placed on a strap on her right thigh and two on her left arm. She took out a special piece of clothing out of the box. It was some sort of armlet for her upper arm. The grenades fit perfectly inside a plastic frame. Now she was fully prepared or any situation.

I nodded impressed.

"Nice, now you don't need to worry about running out of ammo again."

"That's right. As far as I am concerned, we can go out and investigate."

Pale nodded and put his Yo-Yo away.

"Where's Ivory hangin'?

That was a good question. We didn't want to leave her behind, I wouldn't let that happen. I walked to our desk and began to load my three magazines with ammunition. I received the bullets from a local weapons trader; I commissioned it after the quest ended. What he sent were two small containers of high quality bullets with black casings. One magazine was able to hold nineteen bullets.

And even if I ran out of ammunition, I could simply continue the fight using my weapon in its sword form.

Pale's question Ivory opened the door to our room and said somewhat hysterically.

"Guys, I found out something interesting. Do you remember the kind of ship the smugglers used?"

I answered with a nod. Of course I knew what kinds of aircraft they used; they visited us from time to time, always with the same vehicles.

Ivory looked at us all with a bold expression which gave the illusion that she had done something daring.

"And if you had to describe it, would you use the terms _boat like_ , _formed like an arrow_ and _rusted_?"

That interrupted me in my progress with loading my magazines. I put everything down.

"Yeah, I'd probably do, why?"

Ivory grinned like a Cheshire cat.

"Dock four, arrived yesterday in the evening. Five people, four of them heavily armed and disgruntled looking. They were apparently shipping large amounts of dust. They're staying at a nearby hostelry."

She held a piece of paper up in the air, and we saw that she scribbled some cues on it. To say that we were surprised by that was only a harmless way to describe us at this moment.

"How did you get all that information?"

Ivory just waved off.

"Oh, I have my ways. Don't you worry, this is trustful info. An old friend who owed me something told me what I wanted to know."

My eyes narrowed in disbelief, however, we all believed her. Eda breathed out and took a feather ball out of her belt. She threw it into the air, not too high, and balanced it on her index finger.

"Let's move out then. I guess we're ready."

We walked out of our room. I exited it last so I pulled the door close behind me. The lock clicked and assured me that the door was shut. But we did not come far. Rogey stepped onto the floor at the same time. Her gaze got stuck at us, I can't blame her, after all we looked like we were ready to tear apart a whole army.

Combat ready as I would describe us. She of course looked curious.

"Hey ya' guys, what are you off to? You look like we're under attack."

Greystep told us we shouldn't inform anybody about our intentions. But seriously, Rogey was sort of a team member for us, although she fought with team BRNN. But we attended the same Academy and we all had the same goals, so why not tell her?

"We're heading to the airship docks."

Rogey looked at us with an even more curious expression. She crossed her arms.

"Is it going to be dangerous?"

My friends and I exchanged looks.

"Yeah, I guess so. Why?"

"Then I'd like to join you, and I be the others would like to come as well. At least if you want us to."

With _the others_ she obviously meant her team mates. I thought about that. They could help us, of course, but wasn't that a little too exaggerated? There was only one ship with one crew, and they couldn't be that strong. That was what I thought.

We decided to let them stay at Haven. I didn't know any better, although my idea wasn't that bad.

"Listen, you can tell your team where we are. You can find us at dock four. If we don't respond when we arrive, you can come after us, okay? It is better if we have someone here who watches our backs."

She saluted while making a face like a serial killer.

"Yes, that sounds alright to me. You call me if something's wrong."

I was about to ask if she needed our numbers to contact us, but Eda and Ivory both held up their scrolls.

"We took care of that, Darkin; we already exchanged our numbers."

The city of Mistral was a very beautiful location. Somebody once chose to divide the city into zones. The elitist, the wealthy and important people lived in the upper zone, the top of the mountains. Sure, everything that shined golden had to sit above everything else. That was called society. The zone in the middle provided a huge amount of market places, shops, quarters for tradesmen and travelers.

It had been referred to as the most colorful part of the city. The upper zone shined in a white, clear manor, while the other two zones represented all kinds of differences and colors, giving me the definite opinion that we were about to enter a completely different zone. I quit looking around which was my primary activity since we had left the academy.

I looked over to Ivory, who became more and more inconvenient with every step we took.

My speed automatically slowed down a little and made me walk next to Ivory.

"What is it, Ivory?"

She shook her head and did not let go of her weapon.

"Do you honestly think that's a good idea?"

I could not hide a grin. I put my hands into my pockets. The sun shined bright in the evening, which caused Ivory to blink.

"What, are you scared? I thought you are a tough girl. Besides, you were by far the most thrilled to do this."

My friend looked at me annoyed.

"You know exactly what these guys are about. Why are you not uptight?"

That was an easy question. Perhaps it had something to do with all the things I saw them doing. Maybe I learned one or two ways to fight them, or I knew what these people would do next. So I replied.

"I am not nervous, I am excited."

Pale became interested in my statement.

"What, you're excited? About what?"

"All the time, my family did business with them."

I explained myself.

"And you guys know how I think about them. They were thieves. And finding these guys, maybe even arresting them alive, that would be something I'd love to do. And finding out where I can find Veers; that will be the cherry on top."

"Let me guess."

Eda said. She pointed her finger at the docks which were now visible from our position.

"You have your very own reasons for this?"

She was right. Veers did something very bad. And I could never forgive him for that.

I nodded slowly.

"Yes. I do have my reasons."

Ivory took out her scroll and opened a message which had just appeared.

"Rogey told her team what is going on. They are ready to roll, in case we need them to. We can begin."

We stopped. The many people around us did not seem to care about us; they all minded their own business. They either bought or sold goods.

The many colorful shops provided shadow for everyone. Banners jerked around with the wind.

A little girl telling her mother that there were Huntsmen did not go unnoticed by me either. The people were thankful, they felt safe in the presence of Huntsmen and Huntresses, even students.

I moved closer to one of the many staircases and stopped by the wall. The docks were not far away from us, and we were able to see every movement down there.

"Let's see."

I spoke up.

"We should come up with a strategy. Personally, I'd say we go down there as a team, and when we enter the docks, we should split up. That way we can prevent any distractions and traps. Eda, you go through the main door with Pale. Be careful when entering, they might be on their guard.

Ivory, we both go around the dock and enter through a back door or something like that."

"That sounds good to me. What happens if they resist?"

Eda wanted to know. That was good, she was aware of any danger.

"Then we will defend ourselves and try to apprehend them."

And of course, there was still one question to ask, which Pale eventually did.

"And what if we don't find 'em there?"

"We'll gather information and maybe some documents about their doings here. We can present that to the police."

Everyone approved my plans. We did one small mistake though. One should never underestimate his foe, and that was exactly what we were doing. We pictured a bunch of smugglers, sitting around drinking and enjoying their free lives.

We walked down the long and curvy staircase leading to the docks. Now there were people who looked at us. We did not satisfy them all with our presence there.

I stared my way through the people. I was used to something like that, and I somehow learned a lot from my big sister. First thing was, whoever stared at you while looking evil had no good intentions. The best way to stay out of trouble was to simply stare back.

And what can I say, they all looked away again and did not do anything idiotic. It felt like they had seen something like an outlaw aura around me. I surely had one, keeping in mind that I originated from that kind of a family.

But I noticed that the others were not that experienced with those kinds of situations. For example, the looks of the gentry around us. If I wasn't there to tell my friends to step closer to look more confident and just walk past them all, this might have ended very different. The harbor wasn't that bad actually, I have seen way worse.

There were still shops sometimes, but every single one of these was just a cover for operations which were not so legal. My eyes scanned everything we passed. There could be a trap at any given time. And it was not impossible to stumble upon the airship's crew.

I was terrified that they could recognize me. After all, I was the son of their long time contractor. On the other hand, that fact could save us at the same time. Suddenly, Ivory pointed ahead.

"There it is. Dock four."

She declared.

"Right there, the one with the many barrels stacked on top of each other next to it."

I nodded. We walked a little bit closer. After looking around carefully I noticed that nobody paid attention to us at all. Everyone who had looked at us was now leaving the area.

"Be very careful, I think they already know we're coming."

My friends got it. Pale took out his Yo-Yo and threw in a gum. One of his activators. He moved closer to the door and seemed to stare through the thick metal. It was easy to scout ahead for him.

"I don't see anyone up in there. Place's empty."

"Then on my mark, we go in there and find out everything we can. Prepare to enter."

Ivory and I scurried around the building while keeping close to the walls. I stopped inches before the corner and peeked around. There wasn't a single person around.

I signaled Ivory to go forth. I looked back and hurried after my friend. We now stood between two docks, so we kind of relaxed again. We both looked around and searched for a way in.

"What's about that window there? I think we can fit through."

She proposed and inspected the window a little closer. She searched for the weak point, which in this case, was the window itself. The glass already had cracks, weak enough for a punch to destroy it. I inspected the roof. It was flat, so we were able to go on top of it. I remembered what Doctor Shwiwap had told us.

 _Always keep your surroundings in mind_.

I still decided that the window was the best way in. I drew my sword and stepped closer.

We peeked inside to ensure that nothing bad was expecting us.

I saw the silhouette of the aircraft. Ivory was right, it was the right dock. I gave the signal and the glass shattered as Ivory's weapon impacted with it. In no time we were inside the dock and stared right into the eyes of our friends.

I needed some time to get used to the darkness in there.

"Everything is clear, guys. No one is here."

Eda whispered and began to walk towards the airship. Pale began to sort through some boxes which had the words _shipment_ _sixty_ _three_ written on them in red bright colors.

I walked to one of the tables which were crudely placed in the corner. There were a lot of poker chips, cigarettes, alcohol and scrap lying all around it. The light of one of the table lamps shined dimmed because of smoke coming from the still burning remains of a thick cigar.

I saw a pile of papers stapled on a chair next to the table, and I wanted to inspect them.

Eda climbed onto the aircraft. It was facing the huge roller door, so the engine and storage level were easy to access. A huge assortment of barrels, boxes and a palette filled with stacked canisters stood on the storage platform. Eda climbed onto the loaded goods while holding on to the thick rubber bands, which seemed to be holding the whole freight in place.

Ivory stumbled upon a lot of furniture and carefully looked for clues. I sorted through the paperwork on the table, and right on the second page I found what I expected to find.

"I got something, guys. It's a shipping list, with all their goals and contractors written down."

I began to go through all the names and things that had to be shipped. I spoke while I read.

"The mayor of a settlement in the east, they will receive minerals and dust. In exchange they will dump three barrels filled with fabric. Then there is a man who requested a whole bunch of pistols and small firearms. Therefore they will take a box full of electric stuff. Cables, switches, hard drives and some _egghead_ _stuff_ as they say. Huh, that is something."

Eda looked around on the ship.

"Everything you just said is already up here. The box is there."

She pointed at a metal container. I turned the page.

"It seems like these people already received the shipments then.

Where are their next goals?"

Ivory wondered. I found something interesting.

"There seems to be someone or something called _the_ _New_ _Society._ It wants the smugglers to deliver the minerals and the electronics over to the harbor, as well as a whole lot of weaponry. And then they are supposed to meet up with someone called…"

I froze. It was not possible for me to speak any further. I stared at horror at the name that was written down on the paper. Pale came over to me and looked at the paper which I was holding up.

"Anthracite Tangery? Ain't that your sis?"

I put the papers away to prevent myself from throwing them away. I felt the hate rise up in me once again. I slowly replied.

"Yes, Pale. That is my monster of a sister. And these guys make business with her.

Oh great."

Eda looked affected at me.

"So, what do you say? Shall we get the police over here? They could take them into custody

and investigate."

I thought. I cleared my mind and just thought about what we should do next.

"No."

I said finally.

"She is way too mighty with the right allies, the police would be just a waste of time. In the end they couldn't do much. We have to keep that to ourselves and tell the right people about it. But first we need to get out of here again."

Pale asked.

"And what about them baddies?"

He pointed at the airship.

"They can get busted by the police, as far as I'm concerned.

Somebody dial and tell them where we are."

I saw that Ivory did that for us. Eda climbed down from the aircraft. She held something tiny in her hand. I was curious what she had found.

"What did you find?"

"It's one of the many tiny stones in the minerals shipment."

She held up a dust crystal, which shined in a bright yellow color. There were red traces of dust inside of the stone. I have never seen such a combination ever before.

"It seems to be highly explosive to me. I have some experience with dust."

Eda explained while inspecting the crystal a little closer.

"Whatever they have planned, it just has to be dangerous."

I stated. Ivory piped up.

"The police sent a few troopers over. They should come by in a few minutes."

Pale lifted his hand up.

"They're coming, friends. A few meters from the door."

We looked at him. No questions were asked; we all jumped into cover.

Ivory and I hid behind a few of the barrels which stood next to the wall.

Pale threw his Yo-Yo up in the air. It got stuck at one of the many crossbars which served as the pedestal of the dock. He swung himself on top of one and crouched.

Eda hid behind one of the massive sleds of the aircraft. The doorknob wiggled and someone stormed inside.

Two men, probably drunk, stumbled in and talked.

"Hell, I am finished for today. Don't need anymore."

The other one kindly responded.

"Yeah, of course. That had turned out to be too much for our princess."

Another guy walked in and closed the door behind him. He was way bigger and stronger looking than his colleagues. He also looked a lot like a Faunas.

He had strong traces from a tiger. He wore a pair of fingerless gloves, and they had something similar to tiny knifes attached to them. His sunglasses reflected the environment in front of him. He grunted.

"Damn you two are stupid. Keeping a low profile ain't your specialty."

The guy who was referred to as a princess spoke up.

"Hey, that guy looked at me weird. I didn't start no fight, man."

The other men seemed to not care at all.

"You left your cigar burning, _Paon_."

The huge man said caustically and gave his friend a nasty look. Paon hastily walked to the table and took the cigar. He began to light it up again.

I slowly turned my head around to see Ivory preparing for the worst. She held her weapon tight to her chest and did not move an inch. I concentrated on our enemies again.

One of them, the other drunken man, came closer to the aircraft. He was in his thirties and had a very well built body. A lot of tattoos ran down his arms and his neck, as well as a piercing on his lower lip. His blue hair had an interesting looking style. He jumped onto the airship and climbed on top of it.

Eda must've been scared by that. I saw her silhouette, and I saw how she prepared for combat as well. That was when I got a good idea. Within a second I held my scroll in my hand and started a recording. I held it closer to the edge of the barrels while hoping that they would say something important. Paon shouted from the storage platform at the others.

"So, when are we heading to the Tangery family? They are the last ones on the list, isn't it?"

The huge man sighed heavily.

"We need to fly out today to make it. The military forces of Vale are still on alert from the last time we headed over there."

"Calm down, _Tigre_. They won't expect us to use the safe route."

The man smoking the cigar made a hand gesture.

"We are completely safe."

Tigre just shook his head. He seemed to be the boss of them.

"Since Veers ordered us to work for that crazy bitch we always get into trouble."

He grunted in disgust. Yes, that sounded totally like my sister. And I also understood what he meant with the description. I slowly began to understand.

They were ordered by Captain Veers, their leader, to meet up with my mafia of a family and to do everything they had to do for them, and that was probably dirty work. I would have bet Destiny's Sun that I was right with that.

But what exactly did my family have to do with dust and electric devices? I mean, weaponry, yeah, I got what they had in mind with guns. But besides me and Anthracite, there was not a single soul at our home who had used dust. And electronic devices? What kind of electronics could my father possibly have interest in? Only stuff to build bombs at most.

Cringing I realized that I just answered my own question. That was something both my family and their ideology had in common. Terrorizing other people was their specialty after all. I had to do something about that. We were in great danger if they started planting bombs.

And it was even more terrifying to know that they all survived the night raid. I was sure that Ivory wanted to hold me back just like the others, but I saw no other choice. We had to prevent them from leaving.

I stepped out of our hideout and drew my sword. My friends followed my move.

They all stepped next to me.


End file.
